says, 'a most noble monastery had existed there under its first father Comgall, which, as the head of many monasteries, produced many thousand monks. This sacred place was so fertile of saints and so abundantly bore fruit to God, that one of the sons of that holy fraternity, called Luanus, is said to have been alone the founder of no fewer than a hundred monasteries, filling Ireland and Scotland with its offspring, and not only in these, but even in foreign countries these swarms of saints poured forth like an inundation, among whom Saint Columbanus, penetrating thence to these our Gallican regions, erected the monastery of Luxeuil.' 33 Angus the Culdee in his Litany invokes 'forty thousand monks, with the blessing of God, under the rule of Comgall of Bangor,' but this number has probably been written for four thousand in the text. The Luanus mentioned by St. Bernard was Lugidus, or Molua, of Clonfert-Molua, now Clonfertmulloe, on the boundary between Leinster and Munster, and his monasteries were mainly founded in the southern half of Ireland. It was, as we have seen, by the mission of Columbanus to Gaul that this Monastic Church of Ireland was 34 orum (Ards) juxta mare orientale; et maxima multitudo monachorum illuc venit ad S. Comgallum ut non potuissent esse in uno loco, et inde plurimas cellas et multa monasteria non solum in regione Ultorum sed per alias Hiberniæ provincias; et in diversis cellis et monasteriis tria millia monachorum sub cura sancti patris Comgelli erant ; sed maior et nominatior cæteris locis prædictum monasterium Benchor est.-Boll. A.SS. in Vit. S. Comgalli, cap. 13. 33 Ipsum quoque locum Benchor tradidit ei princeps, ut ædificaret ibi monasterium, vel potius reædificaret. Nempe nobilissimum extiterat ante sub primo patre Congello, multa millia monachorum generans, multorum monasteriorum caput. Locus vere sanctus fœcundusque sanctorum, copiosissime fructificans Deo, ita ut unus ex filiis sanctæ illius congregationis, nomine Luanus, centum solus monasteriorum fundator extitisse feratur. Hiberniam Scotiamque repleverunt genimina ejus. Nec modo in præfatas, sed in exteras etiam regiones, quasi inundatione facta, illa se sanctorum examina effuderunt; e quibus ad has nostras Gallicanas partes sanctus Columbanus ascendens Lexoviense construxit monasterium, factus ibi in gentem magnam. Hæc de antiqua dicta sint Benchorensis monasterii gloria. - Vit. S. Malachiœ, cap. 5. 34 xl. mili manach co rath De fo mam Chomgaill Benchuir, hos omnes invoco. brought into contact with the Continental Church. We have already adverted to some of the external peculiarities which distinguished it from the Roman Church at this period; and we must now consider more in detail the features which characterised it in the aspect in which it presents itself to us in its home in Ireland. When we read of such a number of monasteries con- The prim tive Irish structed within a short period, so many of them, too, the work monastery. of one saint, we must not suppose that they at all resembled the elaborate stone structures which constituted the monastery of the Middle Ages. The primitive Celtic monastery was a very simple affair, and more resembled a rude village of wooden huts. We find from the Irish Life of Columba that, when he went to the monastery of Mobhi Clairenach, on the banks of the river Finglass, where no fewer than fifty scholars were assembled, their huts or bothies (botha) were by the water, or river, on the west, and that there was an ecclais, or church, on the east side of the river, which was no doubt, as was usual at the time, made of no better material. Thus it is told of Mochaoi, abbot of Nendrum, that on one occasion he went with seven score young men to cut wattles to make the ecclais, or church.35 When Ciaran of Saighir, who was one of the twelve apostles of Ireland, proceeded to erect his huts and church, he is said to have constructed them of the rudest materials, and when he went into the wood for these a wild boar assisted him by biting off with his sharp teeth the rods and branches for the purpose.36 Coemgen of Glendalough, too, built his oratory of rods of wood, planks, and moss; 37 and in Conchubran's Life of Monenna we are told that she founded a monastery, which was made of smooth planks, according to the fashion of the Scottish nations, who 35 Martyr. Donegal, p. 177. 36 Aper statim in conspectu viri Dei virgas et fenum ad materiem cellæ construendæ dentibus suis fortiter abscidit. - Colgan, A.SS., 37 Boll. A.SS., Jun. 1, 316. '38 were not accustomed to erect stone walls or get them erected." The church in these early monasteries was thus, as well as the huts or bothies for the accommodation of the monks, frequently built of wood; and the usual name given to this early wooden church was Duirthech, or Deirthech, of which the Latin equivalent was 'oratorium.' Of this word various etymologies are given; but the most probable is that contained in an old glossary which tells us that Duirtheach comes from Dairthech, a house of oak, and Deirthech from Dear, a tear, that is, a house in which tears are shed.39 It was not till the end of the eighth century, when the ravages of the Danes and their repeated destruction of the churches by fire showed the great insecurity of these wooden buildings, that they began, when reconstructed, to be built of stone, and the cloicteach, or stone belfry, was then added to the ecclesiastical buildings. Of the repeated destruction of the wooden buildings by fire the Irish Annals afford sufficient evidence, and that the cloicteachs were added through fear of the Danes, is probable from the evidence that they were not only used as belfries, but also as places of safety both for the monks and for the valuables in possession of the monasteries.40 The stone churches were termed Damhliag, and are usually rendered in Latin by 'templum,' 'ecclesia,' and 'basilica.' 41 In an ancient tract of Brehon laws, which treats of the different stipends given to artificers for their labours, there is a statement of the payments to be made to the 38 Ecclesia in monasterio sanctæ Monennæ cum supradicta abbatissa construitur tabulis dedolatis, juxta morem Scotticarum gentium, eo quod macerias Scotti non solent facere, nec factas habere. -Vit. S. Mon. 39 Durthech .i. dairtech .i. tech darach no deirthech .i. tech .i. telgter dera. 'Durthech, i.e. dairtech, i.e. a house of oak, or deirtech, i.e. a house in which tears are shed.'-Petrie's Round Towers, p. 342. 40 Dr. Petrie has made the history and use of these buildings perfectly plain in his great work on the Round Towers of Ireland. 41 It is thus explained in the old glossaries ::-Daimliag .i. tegais cloch. Daimliag, i.e. an edifice of stone.'-Petrie's Round Towers, pp. 141, 142. Ollamh Saer, or master builder, who was required to be equally skilled in the art of building in stone and in wood, which well brings out the distinction between the modes of constructing these buildings. In this document we are told that he was to be paid 'for the two principal branches of the art as from the beginning, that is, stone building and wood building, the most distinguished of these branches to remain as formerly-viz., the Daimhliag and the Duirthech. Twelve cows to him for these, that is, six cows for each." '42 Attached to the Duirthech was usually a small side building termed Erdam, or in Latin 'exedra,' which was used as a sacristy. There was also a somewhat larger house which was the refectory, or common eating-hall, termed the Proinntigh, and in connection with it a Coitchenn, or kitchen, and when there was a stream of water fit for the purpose there was a Muilinn, or mill, and in connection with it a stone kiln for drying the corn. The Ollamh Saer was also to receive 'six cows for coicthigis, or kitchen-building, and six cows for muilleoracht, or mill-building.' Somewhat apart from the cells of the monks were the abbot's house and the house set apart for the reception of guests, called the Tighaoid-headh, or 'hospitium,' and these two were of wood, as appears from the numerous notices in the Annals of those buildings being burnt by the Danes;44 while the Ollamh Sacr is to receive 'two cows for houses of rods.' The whole of these buildings were protected by a circumvallation, sometimes of earth, or of earth and stone, termed the Rath, or Lios, and in Latin 'vallum,' at others of stone, or of earth faced with stone, and termed Caiseal, the remains of which still exist in connection with several of these foundations.45 42 Petrie's Round Towers, pp. 343, 344. 43 In Cormac's Glossary it is thus explained:-Aurdom, i.e. urdom, i.e. side house, or against a house externally. 44 See Petrie's Round Towers, pp. 425, 426. 45 Ib., p. 442. See description of Inis macsaint, an island in Lough Erne, where Saint Ninnidh, one of The size of these monasteries, as well as the number of monks which they contained, varied very much, but this did not affect their relative importance, which depended more upon the position of their founder and the jurisdiction they possessed from their foundation over other monasteries which had emanated from the same founder, or his disciples. The smallest in size appear to have usually contained one hundred and fifty monks. This was the number in the monastery founded in the Aran isles by Enda, who was one of those founders of monasteries who were trained at the 'Magnum Monasterium' of Candida Casa, or Whithern. We find the same number in the monastery of Lothra, founded by Ruadhan, one of the twelve apostles of Ireland; 46 and Angus the Culdee in his Litany invokes 'thrice fifty true monks under the rule of Bishop Ibar,' 'thrice fifty true monks under the rule of Munnu, son of Tulchan,' and 'thrice fifty true monks with the favour of God in Dairiu Chonaid.' We have then a monastery three times as large, when he invokes 'nine times fifty monks under the rule of Mochoe of Nendrum.' The numbers of seven hundred and eight hundred occur in connection with Mochuda, when he in the twelve apostles of Ireland, founded a monastery. 'To the west and north of the church extend mounds of earth, which indicate the forms and positions of the ancient community dwellings. There was a rampart of mixed earth and stones, and this probably formed a rath, or cashel.'-O'Hanlon's Lives of the Saints, vol. i. p. 322. The following is a good description of a small monastery :Erat enim habitatio eorum sparsa. Tamen unanimiter illorum conversatio in spe, fide et charitate fundata erat. Una refectio, ad opus Dei perficiendum una ecclesia est. Nihil aliud cibi ministrabatur illis, nisi poma et nuces atque radices et : cetera genera herbarum. Fratres, post completorium, in singulis. cellulis usque ad gallorum cantus seu campanæ pulsum pernoctabant. -Acta S. Brendani, p. 86. 46 This is stated in their acts. The Martyrology of Donegal has under Enda, abbot of Ara, 'Thrice fifty was his congregation;' and under Ruadhan, son of Ferghus, abbot of Lothra, 'There were one hundred and fifty in his congregation, and they used to obtain sufficiency always without human labour to sustain them, by continually praying to, and praising, the Lord of the elements.'-Mart. Don., pp. S3, 103. |