130

CHAPTER XI.

CONTROVERSY ABOUT EASTER-INFLUENCE OF NORTHUMBRIA ON ABERNETHY.

WE have now acquired an idea of the life and work of the Columban monastery, and the most striking feature of it is, that it was not a foreign but a native development, that its polity was that of the country consecrated to the service of religion. It was not until the seventh century that the influence of Rome began to be felt, and the very contact produced a wide and bitter schism. The Columban Church was separated from the great ecclesiastical capital by the sea, and the natural division produced an individuality of thought and an alienation of sympathy from the central authority. The Celtic Church had developed its own system, observances, creed, and had no organic relation to the Church at Rome, which was separated from it in language and race, as well as characterised by a polity that was diocesan and not tribal.

The robustness of this native Church is to be recognised in the fact that it was an earnest missionary Church. In those early days the Celtic Church played an important part in Western Europe, and the extension of Christianity there. Says an authority: "It is a curious fact that the Irish Kalendars take very little notice of that great army of missionaries who, proceeding from Ireland, covered the Continent with monastic institutions,

and often contributed to episcopal sees worthy occupants, whose names are still remembered by a local worship. The extent of this influence can hardly be measured, and its existence is the most corroborative evidence of the high state of civilisation of Ireland and Scotland at the time in which this religious emigration prevailed. With every allowance for the wandering propensities of the Scoti of the dark ages, these institutions could not have taken root and flourished as they did without good reason. They must have supplied some want in Europe or they could not have

continued." 1

The Celtic Church, inspired by its missionary spirit, planted its monasticism in Europe, and endeavoured to introduce its peculiar customs in districts more sympathetic and open to influences from Rome. A representative of this early movement is Columbanus, whose mission to Gaul in 590 and his vehement assertion of Celtic customs aroused opposition, and made the Roman Church aware of the divergences that existed on what were then regarded as important matters. It soon became visible to the Gallic ecclesiastics that these divergences consisted in a peculiar form of tonsure, and in the observance of Easter. The Celtic monks shaved from ear to ear and left the hair on the back of the head unshaved; the Roman tonsure consisted in shaving the crown and back of the head, leaving a circular rim or "crown" of hair. The Celtic monks also observed Easter on a different day from that of the Roman Church, and had not accepted, or rather were ignorant of, the change that had been made throughout Western Christendom. Such was the beginning of a controversy that was waged with bitter strife for over a century, and was only ended by the monks of the Columban Church being forced to accept the Roman methods

in 716.

2 See Ireland and the Celtic Church,' by Prof. Stokes, pp. 131-148.

3 Dr Campbell's History, p. 129.

The mission of Columbanus to Gaul was followed by that of St Augustine to Britain in 597, and this brought the Celtic Church more under the influence of the Roman Church, and created that policy which, in endeavouring to produce uniformity on secondary points and eliminate local autonomy, produced such disastrous results in later Church history. Laurence, who succeeded Augustine in 604, "not only," says Bede, "attended to the charge of the new Church that was gathered from the English people, but also regarded with pastoral solicitude the old natives of Britain. and likewise the people of the Scots who inhabit the island of Ireland adjacent to Britain."1 In conjunction with his fellowbishops he addressed the following letter to the Irish hierarchy:

To our lords and most dear brethren the bishops or abbots throughout all Scotia, Laurentius, Mellitus, and Justus, bishops, the servants of the servants of God. When the Apostolic See, according to her practice in all the world, stationed us in these Western parts to preach to the pagan nations here, and so it came to pass that we entered into this island which is called Britain, before we were acquainted with it, supposing that they walked in the ways of the universal Church, we felt a very high respect for the Britons as well as the Scots, from our regard for their sanctity of character; but when we came to know the Britons, we supposed the Scots must be superior to them. However, we have learned from Bishop Daganus coming into this island, and Abbot Columbanus coming into Gaul, that the Scots differ not at all from the Britons in their habits. For Bishop Daganus, when he came to us, would not take meat with us, no not so much as in the same lodging where we were eating.

This letter had no results; each side adhered tenaciously to its custom, and the last sentence reveals the spirit in which the question was regarded by the northern clergy. It was written during the time Laisren was Abbot of Iona (599-605).

While the Monastery of Abernethy must have had a peculiar importance through its connection with St Bride of Kildare, yet the influence of St Columba would overshadow it, and not unlikely, as the other Columban foundations, it would regard Iona as at this

1 Hist. Eccles., bk. ii. c. 4.