Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum Part 9

In some of the churches mention is made of an _urdumh_, or sacristy, properly a 'side-house,' opening on the chancel of the church, and having also an exterior door for the clergy as at present. In several of the churches, however, we find no trace of any sacristy. Bells were used to summon the community to the church and to the refectory; they were generally square hand-bells, made of sheet iron or bronze, of which some very ancient specimens are still extant.

In the refectory we find reference made to the table, also to the use of knives, drinking-cups, probably made of wood, and ladles; in the kitchen we hear of frying-pans, grid-irons, pots and water jars, doubtless similar to those used in the houses of hospitality throughout the country generally, specimens of which may still be seen in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy. They were able to fuse metals in Hy, for on one occasion we are told that St. Columba blessed inadvertently a butcher's knife, but his attention being called to the nature of the article, he said it would never hurt man or beast again. As the butcher tried in vain to kill a heifer with the knife--it could not on account of the saint's blessing, even pierce the skin--the knife was smelted down, and all the instruments were dipped in the liquid metal, so that they never again cut or wounded any flesh on account of the might of the saint's blessing. It would seem, therefore, that, at least in the larger establishments, besides the carpenter, there were also brothers of the community, who worked in metals, such for instance as smiths and braziers. Existing remains prove beyond doubt that in metallurgy the Irish monks were pre-eminently skilful, both in originality of design and delicacy of execution. In this special department they seemed to have distanced all rivalry during the Middle Ages.

We see, then, that in the monastery there were not merely artisans, such as are needed for the purposes of every-day life, but artists of the greatest skill and ingenuity.

We shall take occasion hereafter to point out how instruction was communicated in the schools, and to explain what educational appliances were at their disposal, the subjects that were taught, and the proficiency attained.

In connection, however, with this chapter, it is necessary to say something of the Three Orders of Irish Saints, to which reference will frequently be made in the following pages.

V.--THE THREE ORDERS OF IRISH SAINTS.

We shall find, at least, to some extent, a new departure in the great monasteries and monastic schools, founded during the sixth century by the saints of the Second Order. Every one who knows anything of the history of this period will have heard of these Three Orders of Saints in the Celtic Church, but by whom they were first thus arranged and characterised is altogether unknown. Tighernach, the celebrated annalist of Clonmacnoise, is the earliest who refers to them as thus cla.s.sified, and he died A.D. 1088.

The ancient doc.u.ment in which they are thus formally cla.s.sified purports to be a "Catalogue of the Saints in Ireland, according to the different times in which they flourished."

The First Order was in the time of St. Patrick. They were all then great and holy bishops filled with the Holy Ghost, 350 in number, the founders of churches, wors.h.i.+pping one head, namely, Christ, following one leader, Patrick, and having one tonsure, and one celebration of Ma.s.s, and one Easter, which they celebrated after the vernal equinox; and what was excommunicated by one Church all excommunicated. They did not reject the service and society of females, because founded on Christ the Rock, they feared not the wind of temptation. This Order flourished during four reigns, that is, during the time of Laeghaire, son of Niall (A.D. 432), who reigned thirty-seven years, and of Ailill Molt, who reigned thirty years, and of Lugaid, who reigned seven years. And this Order continued to the last years of Tuathal Maelgarbh (A.D. 543). They all continued holy bishops, and they were chiefly Franks and Romans,[120] and Britons, and Scots by birth.

The Second Order of Saints was as follows:--In the Second Order there were few bishops, but many priests--in number 300. Whilst wors.h.i.+pping G.o.d as their one head, they had different rites for celebrating, and different rules of living: they celebrated one Easter on the 14th noon; they had a uniform tonsure, videlicet, from ear to ear. They shunned the society and services of women, and excluded them from their monasteries. This Order also flourished during four reigns, _i.e._, during the last years of Tuathal Maelgarbh, and during the thirty years of the reign of Diarmaid, the son of Cearbhall, and during the time of the two grandsons of Muiredach, who reigned seven years, and during the time of Aedh, son of Ainmire, who reigned thirty years (A.D. 597). These received their rite for celebrating Ma.s.ses from the holy men of Britain, from St. David, and St. Gildas, and St. Docus. And the names of these are--Finnian, Enda, Colman, Comgall, Aidus, Ciaran, Columba, Brandan, Birchin, Cainnech, Coemghan, Lasrian, Lugeus, Barrind, and many others who were of this Second Order of Saints.

The Third Order was of this kind:--They were holy priests and a few bishops, one hundred in number, who dwelt in desert places. They lived on herbs and the alms of the faithful; they despised all things earthly, and entirely avoided all whispering and detraction. They had different rules (of life), and different rites for celebrating; they had also a different tonsure, for some had the crown (shaven), but others kept their hair (on the crown). They had also a different pashcal solemnity; for some celebrated it on the fourteenth, but others on the thirteenth moon. This Order flourished during four reigns, that is, from the time of Aedh Slaine, who reigned only three years, and during the reign of Domhnall, who reigned thirty years, and during the time of the sons of Maelcobha, and during the time (of the sons of) Aedh Slaine. And this Order continued down to the time of the great plague (in A.D. 664). Then follows a list of their names.

Whereupon the writer says:--"Note that the First Order was most holy, the Second holier, and the Third holy. The First glowed like the sun in the fervour of their charity; the Second cast a pale radiance like the moon; the Third shone like the aurora. These Three Orders the blessed Patrick foreknew, enlightened by heavenly wisdom, when in prophetic vision he saw at first all Ireland ablaze, and afterwards only the mountains on fire; and at last saw lamps lit in the valleys. These things have been extracted from an old _Life of Patrick_."[121]

Such is the account given in our ancient books of the Three Orders of the Irish Saints.

We have here followed the copy of this ancient doc.u.ment, taken from the _Salamanca MS._, lately published at the expense of the Marquis of Bute.

It is beyond doubt a very ancient and most interesting doc.u.ment; but for the present we can only refer to those points that concern our immediate purpose.

It clearly marks a transition as having taken place in the early part of the sixth century from the missionary church of St. Patrick, who was engaged in founding churches and preaching the Gospel, to the monastic church of the sixth century. It emphasises the rejection of female ministration by the monks, and the exclusion of females from the monasteries, a thing that could not be done and never has been done in the case of the secular clergy living in the world, and engaged in missionary labour. The observation that "what was excommunicated by one church was excommunicated by all," seems to point to a more perfect unity in the Patrician Church than existed during the second half of the sixth century. The central authority both in Church and State during the latter period was notably weakened. It is clear, too, that different rules of life were followed in different monasteries, and also that different rites were used in the celebration of Ma.s.s, and this doc.u.ment a.s.serts that the rite used by the saints of the Second Order was derived from Wales--from David, Gildas, and Docus. This is a most important statement, if it is well founded; for it shows that these saints of the Second Order derived both their liturgy and discipline, not from St. Patrick and his immediate disciples, but rather from the great Welsh Schools that grew up during the sixty years when St. Patrick was engaged in preaching the Gospel in Ireland. Indeed, although Ware says that St. Patrick himself wrote a monastic Rule, we can find no good authority for the statement. His hands were full, and he was too busy to attend to the organization of monastic life, beyond laying down these general principles that are common to all monastic houses. It is a much stranger thing that the saints of the Second Order should introduce into Ireland, so soon after St. Patrick's death, those later modifications in the liturgy which they saw in use in the Welsh monasteries. It is insinuated, too, that St. Patrick and his disciples followed the correct Easter, but that the saints of the Second Order introduced the British Easter, which was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the moon, as well as the frontal tonsure from ear to ear. As we shall hereafter see, this statement about the time of celebrating Easter is quite inaccurate, but may have crept into the text through the fault of copyists.

The important point to bear in mind is that these saints of the Second Order are represented as deriving their liturgy and discipline from British sources; and it is also expressly stated that this liturgy and discipline differed in some respects from the liturgy and discipline introduced into Ireland by St. Patrick, and practised by his immediate disciples. This is a question of great interest, but by no means easily solved. As a matter of fact, it seems highly probable that the saints of the Second Order did, to a great extent, derive their monastic discipline from two great British sources, as will again be more fully explained in treating of St. Enda of Aran and St. Finnian of Clonard.

CHAPTER VI.

SCHOOLS OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.

Our Kings sat of old in Emania and Tara; These new Kings whence are they? Their names are unknown!

Our saints lie entomb'd in Ardmagh and Kildara; Their relics are healing, their graves are gra.s.s-grown.

I.--THE SCHOOL OF ARMAGH.

The School of Armagh seems to have been the oldest, and always continued to be one of the most celebrated, of the ancient schools of Ireland. It dates in all probability from the very foundation of the See of Armagh, for it has always been regarded in the Church as one of the primary duties of a bishop to make provision for the training and education of his ecclesiastics, and as far as possible under his own immediate supervision.

We may be sure that our great Apostle did not neglect his duty; and, indeed, the most ancient writers inform us that the School of Armagh dates from the foundation of the See--the history of one is in fact told in the history of the other.

St. Patrick had purposed to build his Church and found his primatial See in the sweet and flowery fields of Louth, where the deep seclusion of a sheltered meadow wooed his weary heart to build a house for G.o.d, and a home for his own declining years. But G.o.d had willed otherwise. "Get thee northward," said the angel visitor, "to the height of Macha (Ard-Macha); it is there that Providence wills that you should build your church and fix your chair for ever." Promptly, though regretfully, the Apostle obeyed; and crossing the slopes of Slieve Gullion soon came in sight of the swelling hills of Macha of which G.o.d's angel spoke--

"So long as Sea Girdeth this isle, so long thy name shall hang In splendour o'er it like the stars of G.o.d."

The place had long been famous in the legendary history of Ireland. It was the cla.s.sic ground of poetry and romance. Navan fort, just one mile to the west of the present city of Armagh, was the site of the ancient and famous palace of Emania, founded three hundred years before the Christian era by Macha of the golden hair, who traced the site of the rath with the brooch of gold from her neck, and hence it was called _Eamhuin_, in Latin _Emania_, but p.r.o.nounced in Irish _avan_, so that with the article prefixed it becomes _Navan_, or "the fort of the neck-brooch," the name which it retains to the present day. Macha of the golden hair was buried on the height called from her Ard-Macha, although the spot cannot be exactly identified. To the westward of Navan fort is a townland now called Creeveroe, which takes its name from the famous Red Branch Knights (Craebhruadh), who dwelt on that western slope of Emania where they had a school of Chivalry, in which they were trained to all martial feats of valour, and were always at hand to defend their sovereign and follow him to the battle-field. When St. Patrick came to Ard-Macha, that home of chivalry was silent and deserted, for Emania had been totally destroyed by the Three Collas about the year A.D. 322, after it had flourished for more than 600 years. The old order changed, yielding place to the new, and the foundress of Emania gave her name to the royal seat of a more enduring kingdom.

When Patrick, with his train of clerics, came to Armagh, he went straight to the local dynast, whose name was Daire--a grandson, it seems, of Eoghan, son of Niallan, who gave his name to the barony of Oneilland.

Daire was a rough and bold, but not a cruel prince; he had heard, too, of Patrick and of the G.o.d of Christians; so when the Saint asked him for a site of a church on the Ridge of the Willows (Druim-Saileach), although he refused him that proud site on the hill, he granted him leave to build a church in the neighbouring plain to the west, which was called _Na Fearta_, or the Church of the Graves. But Daire, greedy even for what he had given to G.o.d, sent down two of his fleet coursers to graze on the green and fertile meadow which Patrick had enclosed for his church. It was very necessary to teach the rude warriors of the time that G.o.d's acre may not lawfully be profaned by man or beast, so it came to pa.s.s that when the horses tasted of the gra.s.s, they both fell dead, and the king's servants brought word to their master that the Christian priest had killed them.

Daire's brow grew dark, and mentally he swore that he would slay Patrick and all his people, when suddenly he sickened with a sickness nigh to death. Then in great haste the queen, "whose l.u.s.trous violet eyes were lost in tears," sent a messenger to the Saint and besought him to heal her husband, for she knew his malady was a chastis.e.m.e.nt from G.o.d. Patrick yielded to the woman's gracious prayer, and blessing water from the font, he gave it to the messengers, and bade them sprinkle therewith the horses and the king. This was done, and lo! the horses came to life again, and the king's sore sickness left him.

Then Daire sent to Patrick as a gift a huge bronze cauldron, in those days a gift not unworthy of a king. The Saint, raising his eyes from his breviary, said "Deo gratias," but no more. "How did the priest receive my gift?" said the king. "'Gratzicam' was all he said," replied the messengers. Then the king in wrath bade them go again, and bear away the gift from the ungrateful priest; and again Patrick merely said, "Deo gratias." "What said he now?" asked the king. "Only 'Gratzicam,'" answered the messengers. "It is strange," said Daire. "'Gratzicam,' when it is given; and 'Gratzicam' when it is taken away. The word must be good. I will restore him the cauldron, and give him the Ridge of the Willows that he may build a church unto his G.o.d."

So Patrick, and Daire with his queen, and the clerics and the warriors of Daire ascended the slope, and on the crown of that sacred hill, Patrick, book in hand, marked out the site of the church, and all the buildings connected therewith, and consecrated it to G.o.d for ever. Now it came to pa.s.s that as the concourse was advancing, a doe with her fawn was lying under a tree. The startled doe flew swiftly away to the north, and the king's attendants were going to kill the little fawn, but Patrick said, "No"; and stretching forth his hand he took the fawn, and put it on his own shoulders, and the doe taking courage followed him home, and remained with the nuns of Na Fearta ever after, giving them milk, too, beside feeding her fawns. This lesson of love and tenderness even to the brute creation produced a great effect on the warriors of Daire. They saw how Patrick pitied the poor doe, and would not hurt its offspring; they saw in him the image of that Good Shepherd of whom he spoke to them so often; and thus they were made to learn that the Gospel of Patrick was a message of love--of love for G.o.d, their great Father in heaven, and for all their fellow-men on earth.

According to the _Book of Armagh_, written about the year A.D. 807, the doe with her fawn was lying on the very "spot where the altar of the northern church in Ard-Macha now stands;" and Patrick carried the fawn on his shoulders until he laid it "on another eminence at the north side of Armagh where, according to the statement of those who know the place, miraculous attestations are to be witnessed to this day." (Fol 6: b. 2.) The northern church to which the reference is made--built on the very spot where the doe was lying--is generally thought to have been the Sabhall, or Barn, called also the "_Ecclesia Sinistralis_," because it was to the left of the great church, for persons entering the latter from the west. The great church itself known as the _Damhliac_ (Duleek), or the great Stone Church, occupied the site of the present Protestant cathedral; and it is an extraordinary coincidence that the new Catholic Cathedral, the crowning glory of modern Armagh, stands on the opposite hill to the north dwarfing by its majestic proportions the Protestant church--and stands, it is said, on that very "eminence to the north" whither the great apostle carried the fawn on his shoulders! The hunted doe there found rest; and there, too, that other "milk white hind," during the stormy centuries of the past, so often doomed to death, yet fated not to die, was destined to find a refuge and a home. "Great shall be the glory of this last House, more than of the first, and in _this place_ I will give thee peace, said the Lord of Hosts." (Agg. 2, 10.)

There were many other ecclesiastical buildings at Armagh, of which we can only mention the names. There was the _Damhliac Toga_, or the "Stone Church of the Elections," on the south side of the Cathedral, but close at hand; there was a _Cloictech_, or Round Tower, at its north-west angle; there was a _Teach Screaptra_, or House of Writings, also within the original rath; and besides the Abbot's House, we hear of the _Cuicin_ or Kitchen, the prison for refractory monks or students, and the _Reilig_ or Cemetery, which was more to the south, but afterwards extended all round the church. It was there that Brian Boru and his gallant son, Murchadh, were interred after the battle of Clontarf in 1014. Maelmuire, the Primate, proceeded with his clergy and relics to Swords, and waked the royal dead with all honour and reverence. Then they carried the bodies to Armagh, and they were both interred in the same new tomb.

All these buildings, including the houses for the monks and students, crowned the summit of the holy hill, and were surrounded with a large rath or earthen mound, as well as by a _Fith-nemhedh_, or Sacred Grove, where learning and religion sat side by side enthroned for many centuries in spite of much turbulence and bloodshed.

The Churches and Schools of Armagh are said to have been founded between the years A.D. 450 and 457--we can scarcely a.s.sign an earlier date. At that time St. Patrick had done much for the conversion of Ireland, but much still remained to be accomplished, so he chose and consecrated as his coadjutor Benignus, his young and faithful disciple, to preside over the Church of Armagh and over all its monasteries and schools. Thus in truth we may regard Benignus as the first president, and one of the chief professors of the young seminary which St. Patrick had just founded.

Benignus from his boyhood had been trained by St. Patrick himself; he had accompanied him hitherto on all his missionary journeys; he was "psalm-singer" to the Saint, by whom he was tenderly loved, and not without good cause. The brief story of the life of Benignus is very touching--beautiful with a beauty that is all divine.

As we have seen, when St. Patrick first came to preach the Gospel in Ireland, he coasted northward, seeking a suitable spot to land, and amongst other places he put in for a little at the stream now called the Nanny Water in the County Meath, a little to the south of Drogheda. There he visited the house of a certain man of n.o.ble birth, by name Sescnen, whom, after due instruction, he baptized, together with his wife and family. Amongst the children there was one, a fair and gentle boy, to whom the saint, on account of the sweetness and meekness of his disposition, gave in baptism the appropriate name of Benignus. Shortly after the baptism Patrick, wearied out with his labours by sea and land, fell asleep where he sat, as it would seem, on the green sward before the house of Sescnen. Then the loving child, robed in his baptismal whiteness, gathered together bunches of fragrant flowers and sweet smelling herbs and strewed them gently over the head and face of the weary Saint; the child then sat at his feet, and pressed Patrick's tired limbs close to his own pure heart and kissed them tenderly. The Saint's companions were in the act of chiding the boy, lest he might disturb Patrick, who thereupon awaking and perceiving what took place, thanked the tender-hearted child for his kindness, and said to those standing by: "Leave him so; he shall be the heir of my kingdom," by which he meant, says the author of the _Tripart.i.te Life_, to signify that G.o.d had destined Benignus to succeed Patrick in the primatial chair as ruler of the Irish Church. After this nothing could separate the boy from his spiritual father; he hung on the words of wisdom that fell from Patrick's lips; he accompanied him everywhere, and thus from his boyhood was trained by the apostle himself in all divine and human knowledge. We cannot stay to discuss the question whether Secundinus preceded Benignus as coadjutor to St. Patrick in the See of Armagh. It seems he did; it is certain at any rate that for ten years, about the time we speak of, that is, from A.D. 455 to 465, Benignus ruled under the guidance of Patrick the Church and School of Armagh.

His voice was sweet and pleasing, and his knowledge of the chants of the church was very considerable, acquired doubtless from Patrick himself, who had been trained in Gaul and Britain. Hence he was "psalmist" to Patrick, he led the choir of priests and monks at all the solemn ceremonies, and he trained the "wild eyed" Celtic youth to sing the praises of G.o.d like another Orpheus, softening them into Christian meekness by the charms of sweet melody--the melody of his voice and the still sweeter melody of his gentle heart.

Yet though a child of grace he had need of caution. His own sweet winning ways,[122] the music of his voice, his face so modest and so fair, deeply, though to himself unconsciously, won the affections of Ercnat, the beautiful and yet unbaptized daughter of King Daire. Most of all she was smitten by his sweet voice in the choir of the church. But she told no one; only going home she pined away in silence, and "through grief of love the maiden lay as dead." Then at length Benignus hearing the cause, went and told his father Patrick, and Patrick gave him holy water, and bade him go and sprinkle it over the dying maiden. At once she awoke to a new life, with her heart emanc.i.p.ated from every trace of earthly love.

"Thenceforth she loved the spouse of souls.

It was as though some child that dreaming wept, Its childish playthings lost, by bells awaked-- Bride-bells, had found herself a Queen new wed Unto her Country's Lord."

--_Aubrey de Vere._

St. Benignus died, it is generally stated, on the 9th of November, A.D.

468. A short time before his death he is said to have resigned his primatial coadjutors.h.i.+p, for St. Patrick was still alive, at least according to the much more general and more probable opinion, which places his death in A.D. 493, at the great age of 120 years. The death of Benignus is thus noticed in the _Martyrology of Donegal_:

"November 8th, Benignus, _i.e._ Benen, son of Sescnen, disciple of St.

Patrick, and his successor, that is Primate of Ard-Macha.... The holy Benen was benign, was devout; he was a virgin without ever defiling his virginity, for when he was psalm-singer at Ard-Macha along with his master, St. Patrick, Ercnat, daughter of Daire, loved him and she was seized with a disease so that she died (appeared to die) suddenly; and Benen brought holy water to her from St. Patrick, and he shook it upon her, and she arose alive and well; and she loved him spiritually afterwards, and she subsequently went to Patrick and confessed all her sins to him, and offered her virginity to G.o.d, so that she went to heaven; and the name of G.o.d, of Patrick, and of Benen was magnified through it."

The celebrated Irish work called the _Leabhar Na g-Ceart_, or _Book of Rights_, has been generally attributed to St. Benignus, although there seems to be good reason for doubting if he was really its author, at least in its present form. The t.i.tle or inscription of the book certainly attributes it to Benignus. It is to this effect: "The beginning of the _Book of Rights_, which relates to the revenues and subsidies of Ireland as ordered by Benen, son of Sescnen, Psalmist of Patrick, as is related in the _Book of Glendaloch_."

The _Book of Glendaloch_ is no longer extant; but it seems clear from this very t.i.tle that the work in its present form is derived from the ancient compilation known as the _Book of Glendaloch_, and which the Four Masters tell us was in their hands when composing their own immortal work. The copy in the _Book of Glendaloch_ may have been itself made from the original treatise on the subject by St. Benignus, who was in every way well qualified for the task, both by his literary training as well as by his knowledge of his native language, and his familiarity with the laws and customs of the various provinces.

The t.i.tle of the book very fairly describes its contents. It gives an exceedingly minute and interesting account of the revenues and rights of the supreme king; of the services and duties rendered to him by the provincial kings and inferior chiefs, as well as of the gifts and subsidies which he owed them in return. It gives also a full account of the revenues and rights of each of the provincial monarchs, and the services to be rendered to them by the sub-chiefs of the various districts, and the hereditary offices and honours held by the heads of the great families in the provincial a.s.semblies. The work is partly in poetry and partly in prose; and although in its present form it cannot have dated from the time of St. Benignus, it is still an exceedingly valuable work as ill.u.s.trating the internal organization of the entire kingdom, and its minor princ.i.p.alities, and may have been originally drawn up by that learned and holy man, with a view of preventing internecine feuds, by definitely and authoritatively fixing the rights and duties of the various princes and chiefs of the kingdom. This work has been translated and annotated for the Dublin Archaeological Society by the late John O'Donovan.

St. Benignus is said by Jocelin to have written also a life of St.

Patrick, but no copy of it is now known to exist; and he has been always regarded as one of the compilers of the great collection of Brehon Laws known as the _Senchus Mor_.

The School of Armagh seems to have been primarily a great theological seminary. This is only natural; for the seat of authority should be also the fountain of sound doctrine. Of course in those far distant days theological learning had not a.s.sumed the strictly scientific form which was given to it by the great scholastic doctors, and which has been retained and gradually perfected ever since. It was the Positive Theology of the Fathers that was taught in our ancient Irish schools. But the difference regards the form rather than the matter; in both cases the matter is derived from divine revelation. The Fathers, however, explained and enforced the great principles of Christian doctrine and morality with rhetorical fulness and vigour, exhibiting much fecundity of thought and richness of imagery, but not attending so closely as the great scholastics to scientific arrangement, or to the accurate development of their principles and the logical cogency of their proofs. Each of these systems has its own merits and defects; the former is better suited for the instruction and exhortation of the faithful, the latter for the refutation of error; the Positive Theology was of spontaneous growth; the Scholastic System has been elaborately constructed; the one is a stately tree, that with the years of its life, has gradually grown in size and beauty to be the pride of the forest; the other is the Gothic Cathedral that from its broad and deep foundations has been laboriously built up, stone by stone, unto the glory of its majestic proportions and the strength of its perfect unity.