Grigoir Belóir - The Irish Church and Pope Gregory the Great

Below is a reprint of a short essay on the admiration of the Irish Church for Pope Saint Gregory the Great. I first published this piece on my former blog, Under the Oak and also at the Saint Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association site.  March 12 is the date of Pope Gregory's death and as such was his traditional feast day.  In the modern Church he is commemorated on September 3, the day of his episcopal consecration.

March 12 is the feastday of one of the most revered figures of the early Irish Church, Pope Saint Gregory the Great. In the Leabhar Breac copy of the Martyrology of Oengus the entry for this day reads:

Before arriving in his country,
For Christ he mortified his body,
The slaughter [er] of an hundred victories
Gregory of Rome, the intrepid.

This notice is but one example of the esteem in which Pope Gregory was held by the Irish, and so I will try to draw together some of the other strands to illustrate what an important figure he was for our native Church. Let's begin with a brief summary of the Pope's life by Luned Mair Davies:

Gregory the Great... was pope from 590 to 604. Since the eighth century he has been regarded as one of the four Fathers of the western Church. Gregory has been referred to as the master of spiritual exegesis. According to Beryl Smalley, for him 'exegesis was teaching and preaching', and it was the didactic element in his works which made Gregory's strongest impact on medieval biblical study. Gregory was born c.540 in Rome to a senatorial family, and in 573 he was prefect of Rome for a year. He founded seven monasteries in all and in 585 he became abbot of the monastery of St Andreas in Rome, one of his foundations. Pope Benedict I named him as one of the seven regional deacons of the city of Rome and in 579 Pope Pelagius II sent him as apocrisarius to the emperor's palace in Constantinople, where he remained for six years. In 590 he himself became pope. Before his death in 604 his achievements included organising the Patrimonium Petri, attempting to convert the Lombards and sending a mission to the Anglo-Saxons. [1]

The details of Gregory's election to the Papacy were recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters:

The Age of Christ, 590. St Gregory of the Golden Mouth was appointed to the chair and successorship of Peter the Apostle, against his will.

to which John O'Donovan, in his edition of the Annals, added:

The memory of this Pope was anciently much revered in Ireland, and he was honoured with the title of Belóir i.e. of the Golden Mouth.

The Irish held the memory of this Pope in such veneration that their genealogists, finding that there were some doubts as to his genealogy, had no scruple to engraft him on the royal stem of Conaire II, the ancestor of the O’Falvys, O’Connells, and other families. His pedigree is given as follows by the O’Clerys in their Genealogies of the Irish Saints:

“Gregory of Rome, son of Gormalta, son of Connla, son of Arda, son of Daithi, son of Core, son of Conn, son of Cormac, son of Corc Duibhne [the ancestor of the Corca Duibhne, in Kerry], son of Cairbre Musc, son of Conaire”.

The Four Masters have given the accession of this Pope under the true year. Gregory was made Pope on the 13th of September, which was Sunday, in the year 590, and died on the 12th of March, 604, having sat thirteen years, six months and ten days. [2]

Not content with turning a Roman aristocrat into a Kerryman, the Irish also applied an epithet more usually associated with the great Eastern saint John Chrysostom to Pope Gregory. That this happened early on is shown by the reference to the golden-mouth in the Paschal Epistle of Cummian, who, writing in the 630s, cited Pope Gregory to help make his case for the Roman computation of the date of Easter:

I turned to the words of Pope Gregory, bishop of the city of Rome, accepted by all of us and given the name 'Golden Mouth', for although he wrote after everyone, nevertheless he is deservedly to be preferred to all. [3]

It seems that this Irish tradition of referring to Pope Gregory as the golden-mouth was something that was passed on to Northumbria. Patrick Sims-Williams sees evidence of it in an anonymous Vita of Gregory the Great produced at the Monastery of Saint Hilda at Whitby:

In ch. 24 the Whitby writer asserts that the Romans called Gregory ‘golden mouth’ (os aureum) because of the eloquence that flowed from his mouth

‘Ut a gente Romana que per ceteris mundo intonat sublimius proprie (sic) de aurea oris eius gratia, os aureum appellatur’ (Life of Gregory, ed. Colgrave, pp.116-18). Colgrave translates ‘therefore he was called the “golden mouthed” by the Romans because of the golden eloquence which issued from his mouth in a very special way, far more sublimely and beyond all others in the world’.

In fact, of course, the Romans called Gregory no such thing – ‘golden mouth’ was rather the epithet of St John Chrysostom – and the writer is probably drawing, directly or indirectly, on an Irish source. In Ireland, as early as c. 632, Gregory was commonly styled os aureum; in vernacular texts this is bel óir or gin óir which suggests that the epithet had its origin in an etymological interpreation of Grigoir, the Irish form of Gregorius, which might be associated with Latin os, oris ‘mouth’ and with Irish óir ‘of gold, golden’. In Anglo-Saxon England, however, the epithet only reappears in the Old English version of Gregory’s Dialogi by Alfred’s assistant, Werferth, bishop of Worcester c. 873 – c. 915, who similarly speaks of a stream of eloquence issuing from Gregory’s ‘golden mouth’ (gyldenmup) and says that the Romans call him Os Aureum, the Greeks Crysosthomas. [4]

Irish interest in the writings of Pope Gregory started during the Pope's own lifetime, as Luned Mair Davies explains:

Gregory’s writings are copious and diverse, although less abundant than those of Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine; some of them reached insular circles at an early date. The 848 letters which he left us in his Registrum Epistolarum are the primary historical source for this period….Gregory also left a collection of homilies, 40 on the Gospels and 22 on the Book of Ezekiel… Gregory enjoyed enormous popularity and prestige among seventh-century Irish ecclesiastics. Columbanus requested the Homilies on Ezekiel in his first letter to Gregory:

Wherefore in my thirst I beg you for Christ’s sake to bestow on me your tracts, which, as I have heard, you have compiled with wonderful skill upon Ezekiel.

In the same letter Columbanus refers to Gregory’s Regula Pastoralis. This work Gregory had written in 591, in response to a communication from Archbishop John of Ravenna, as a directory for bishops and priests. Columbanus also asked Gregory for more of his writings. His letter to Gregory shows how rapid was the dissemination of Gregory’s works in monastic circles.

The Regula Pastoralis was one of the books by Gregory which were especially influential in the Middle Ages. Another was the Dialogi, a collection of popular edifying stories about Italian saints written by Gregory in the years 593-4. In his Vita Columbae, Adomnan, although he makes no explicit mention of the Gregorian Dialogi, in at least three places clearly borrows phrases from the Dialogi to weave into his own narrative.

The evidence of manuscript transmissions shows that of Gregory’s works the Moralia in Job had geographically the widest circulation: this work also was known early, and used early, in Ireland. The earliest known abridgement of Gregory’s commentary on the Book of Job (the Egloga) was Irish, composed about 650 by Lathcen or Laidcend, the son of Baeth, who is most probably to be identified with the Laighden whose obit is given in the Annals of Ulster under the year 661. [5]

Davies has made a particular study of the use of Pope Gregory's work in the Irish Collectio Canonum hibernensis (CCH). The CCH is a collection of excerpts from biblical and medieval sources, divided into over sixty books which cover the behaviour appropriate for a Christian under various subject headings. It survives in a number of manuscripts and a Breton version attributes it to Ruben of Darinis and Cú-Chuimne of Iona. Both of these reputed authors are known to history, the Annals of Ulster record the death of Ruben in 725 and Cú-Chuimne, called sapiens died in 747. Davies continues:

Five of Gregory’s works are quoted in the CCH. They are: the Pastoral Care (Regula Pastoralis), the Homilies on Ezekiel (Homiliae in Hiezechihelem), the Homilies on the Gospels (Homiliae in Evangelia), the Registrum Epistolarum and the Dialogues (Dialogi)… Of the extracts in the CCH from the Dialogi, five are introduced as in vita patrum, four as Gregorius, one as in vita monachorum and three as De dialogo Gregorii et Petri. Of the eleven other extracts from Gregory the Great in the CCH, four are introduced as by Gregorius Romanus and seven as by Gregorius. The epithet Romanus used for Gregory the Great may reflect the fact that the Romani party in the early Irish Church, who followed Rome’s directives in the dating of Easter, looked to Gregory the Great for guidance. [6]

The Pope's homilies were also influential as Davies explains:

Gregory’s Homiliae were a collection of homilies on selected passages from the Gospels written down in the last decade of the sixth century. They were addressed to Roman audiences on various feast-days of the Roman Church. The texts of Homiliae 32 and 37 were quoted in another sermon, the bilingual Old-Irish-Latin Cambrai Homily, which was copied into one of the manuscripts of the CCH. The Latin parts of the homily contain the scriptural quotations and the patristic authority; they are paraphrased in the Old-Irish part to clarify them for an Irish audience who perhaps did not understand Latin. The Cambrai Homily has been dated to the seventh century. How soon after their composition Gregory’s Homiliae reached Ireland is uncertain. In the first decade of the seventh century Columbanus used them on the continent. [7]

In addition, the Pope's works are cited in the collection of sermons known as the Catechesis Celtica. The Irish Liber Hymnorum contains a collection of extracts of the Psalms of David which are attributed to Gregory. His work is also referred to in The Book of Armagh and the Codex Maelbrighde.

Finally, the Irish regard for Pope Gregory is also reflected in the hagiographical record as the lives of a number of saints seek to associate their subjects with the great Pope. Saint Findbarr's tutor, Mac Cuirb, was described as a pupil of Gregory in the Vita Sancti Barri. The formidable seventh-century Irish theologian, Cummian Fota, was likened to Gregory in the list of parallel saints. The entry in the Annals of the Four Masters recording Cummian's death in 661 includes a poem which says:

" If any one went across the sea,
To sit in the chair of Gregory the Great.
If from Ireland no one was fit for it,
If we except Cummian Fota."

Cardinal Moran has written of another Irish saint, Dagan, a disciple of Molua, who also claimed a link to the Pope:

St. Dagan is designated in our martyrologies by the various epithets of the warlike, the pilgrim, the meek, and the noble. He was one of the most ardent defenders of the old Scotic computation of Easter, and as such is commemorated by Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History. About the year 600 he visited Rome, and sought the approbation of the great pontiff St. Gregory, for the rule of his own master, St. Molua, in whose life we thus read –

" The abbot, Dagan, going to Rome, brought with him the rule which St. Molua had drawn up and delivered to his disciples; and pope Gregory having read this rule, said in the presence of all: ‘the saint who composed this rule has truly guarded his disciples even to the very thresholds of heaven.' Wherefore St. Gregory sent his approbation and benediction to Molua.”

St.Dagan, however, was not the only one of our sainted forefathers that sought the sanction of the Holy See for the religious rule which they adopted. In the Leabhar-nah-Uidhre, it is incidentally mentioned that "St. Comgall, of Bangor, sent Beoan, son of Innli, of Teach-Dabeog, to Rome, on a message to pope Gregory (the Great), to receive from him order and rule.” [8]

Even if one is sceptical about the historical value of hagiographical accounts, one Irish saint we can be sure had a demonstrable link to Pope Gregory is Saint Columbanus. John Martyn has published a most interesting paper on Pope Gregory the Great and the Irish in which he examines the correspondence between the two. Columbanus, like Dagan, was a committed supporter of the Irish Easter and didn't hesitate to let his illustrious correspondent know it. In the nineteenth century, some Protestant scholars tried to argue that the robust style of Columbanus was proof that the Irish did not hold the Papacy in high esteem. Martyn, however, feels they rather missed the point:

Pope Gregory the Great's apparently close links with Columban and the Irish clergy between 592 and 601 are revealed through five of his letters: 2.43 (July 592), an encyclical sent to the Irish clergy, almost certainly including Columban; 4.18 (March 594) about an Irish priest valuable to the Pope in Rome; 5.17 (November 594) about Columban's reception of Gregory's 'Pastoral Care'; 9.11 (October 600) praising Columban; and 11.52 (July 601) about an Irish Bishop Quiritus. My version of Columban's letter to the Pope follows, with brief analysis of his irony, word-play and literary style. It shows how the Irishman's erudite and very rhetorical letter would have tickled the Pope's fancy rather than offend him. [9]

Thus there can be no doubt of the very high esteem in which Grigoir Belóir, Gregory of the golden-mouth, was held by the early Irish Church.


References

[1] Luned Mair Davies The ‘mouth of gold’: Gregorian texts in the Collectio Canonum hibernensis in Próinséas Ní Chatháin & Michael Richter, eds., Ireland and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: texts and transmissions (Dublin, 2001), 250-251.

[2] John O’Donovan, ed. and trans. Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, Vol. 1 (2nd edition, Dublin, 1856), 214-215.

[3] Maura Walsh and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, eds., Cummianus Hibernus, De controversia Paschali, 83. Online version at http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T201070/index.html

[4] Patrick Sims-Williams, Religion and Literature in Western England, 600-800 (Cambridge University Press, 1990), 186-187.

[5] Davies, op.cit., 251-252.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Rev. P.F. Moran, Essays on the Origin, Doctrines and Discipline of the Early Irish Church (Dublin, 1864), 148.

[9] John R.C. Martyn, 'Pope Gregory the Great and the Irish' in Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, Volume 1 (2005), 65-83. Online version at http://home.vicnet.net.au/~medieval/jaema1/martyn.html

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Mermaids in the Medieval Irish Church

Next month will see the commemoration on the Irish calendars of Muirgen, the mermaid saint and so I republish what was one of the most popular posts at my former blog, a paper by an American researcher on the topic of mermaids in the medieval Irish church. It's a most interesting read. There are some photographs of a tapestry of Muirgen found in Bangor Abbey church here and some further illustrations at the original source of the paper here.

Below is a paper by an American scholar whose interest was caught by the carving of this image of a mermaid at Clonfert Cathedral. In her essay, the late Patricia Radford examines the symbolism of the mermaid and what her image may signify within the context of the church.

LUSTY LADIES: MERMAIDS IN THE MEDIEVAL IRISH CHURCH

Patricia Radford (d. 2003) Curator/Lecturer Oklahoma State University

For several years I have been engaged in research involving imagery sculpted on the medieval churches of Ireland. During one trip there, while I was visiting St. Brendan's Church at Clonfert, County Galway, my companion called my attention to a lovely image of a mermaid located on a pier of the chancel arch. Initially, I was surprised to see the mermaid image here at all, bare as the piers were of much else in the way of decoration. This also seemed a peculiar placement in light of the symbolic importance of the chancel arch as a liminal marker and sparked a new line of inquiry for me. The usual interpretation of mermaids is that they are images of lust and sexuality intended to caution the faithful against related sins. But perhaps there is a deeper meaning or an alternate meaning - or even a dual meaning for these images. That is what this paper will explore, along with the history of the mermaid in art.

The earliest known depiction of a mermaid dates back to the 18th century BC on a Babylonian sealstone. Classical references to creatures that are half-human and half-sea creature include the mythology of the gods Nereus and Triton. Nereus is often shown with a trident and was reported to appear to humans in many forms. Depictions of Triton sometimes show him with a single tail while in others he has two. These, however, are male images.

From the Classical period, female creatures associated with the sea or water include Scylla, the half-human, half sea-monster who consumed six of Odysseus' sailors in Homer's Odyssey, and the Sirens, again from the Odyssey, against whose seductive songs Odysseus caused himself to be lashed to the mast and his sailors' ears plugged with wax lest they be tempted to guide the ship and his comrades into their diabolical clutches. Greek mythology and lore are filled with tales of nereids, water nymphs, naiiads, and all manner of female water creatures. Although the Sirens were not possessed of fish tails, they were intimately associated with the sea. Despite their basic physiological differences from mermaids, Beryl Rowland asserts that " . . . in the Middle Ages, the features of mermaids and sirens become confused." [1] When beliefs about the physiology of mermaids and sirens become muddled, their symbolism becomes intricately entwined. Sirens, earlier thought of as having the bodies of birds, had come to be seen as anatomically identical with our conception of mermaids by the medieval period. As a result, we can safely say that these early Classical legends had a great deal of influence upon notions of mermaids throughout Western Europe and within the Church. It is equally likely that they have some bearing upon early Irish tales of mermaids too.

However, Irish tales tend to be more romantic than mermaid legends elsewhere. Known as merrows or muiroighe from 'muir' meaning sea and 'oigh' meaning maiden or youthful woman, these creatures were believed to have the ability to assume human form. The most common mermaid motif in early Irish literature involves the marriage between a mermaid or merrow and a mortal. [2] Typically, the legends describe a mortal who happens upon a group of these creatures who have shed their sea-skins or enchanted red caps to play along the beach. The mortal confiscates one of the skins or caps and hides it. Upon his return to the beach, he finds a lovely young woman who is searching desperately for the lost item so that she may transform back into a mermaid and join her companions in the sea. Instantly enamored of the maiden, the mortal comforts her and offers her the protection of his home as his wife. Seeing no other course, the mermaid-now-human consents. Many years pass and, after bearing the man several children, the wife happens across her enchanted cap or sea-skin one day, hidden by her husband many years prior. She returns to the beach, dons it, and returns to the sea, leaving her mortal husband and children to mourn her loss. Interestingly, several old Irish families trace their lineage to mermaids or muiroighe and include images of them on their family crests and arms.

From various of the annals of Ireland, including the Annals of Ulster and the Annals of the Four Masters, come reports of the capture of mermaids in the years 558, 571, 887, and 1118. Of these, the most famous tale is that of Liban, daughter of Eochaidh, who was spared when the flooding of Lough Neagh drowned her family around 90 A.D. She lived as a human for many years in a cave below the sea prior to her transformation into a mermaid. Once transformed, her singing so enchanted the denizens of Ulster that she was captured and placed on display. In one version, a certain young cleric named Beoc was so charmed by her singing that he asked her to be buried in the same coffin with him upon her demise. She was supposedly baptized "Muirgen" by St. Comgall of Bangor (Muirgen means 'born of the sea' or 'daughter of the sea.') As a result of several miracles associated with her, she became known as St. Murgen.

Thus the literature of early Ireland tells many tales of these half-fish, half-human creatures. From these stories, we glean that mermaids were invariably beautiful, sexual creatures described as having olive skin and webbed fingers, and whose lovely singing irresistibly lured mortal men [3] - even holy men such as Beoc!

This is in keeping with the Greek tradition of the sirens in the Odyssey whose beauty and glorious songs lulled hapless sailors to sleep and brought their ships crashing upon the rocks. The traditions diverge, however, regarding their relationships with humans.

While the sirens were malevolent beings and Greek mermaids were sometimes helpful but always elusive, Irish muiroighe were reported to have long-term relationships with mortal men through marriage and the bearing of their children or even, as in Liban's case, becoming saints. Contrasted with this early Irish notion of the mermaid as being relatively benign is the tradition of the mediaeval Christian Church. The Church saw the mermaid as a symbol of vanity and lust, of sexual display, and seduction and temptation leading to damnation. [4]To enhance this meaning, she is usually depicted, as at Clonfert Cathedral, with a comb and mirror. [5] Lust is, of course, one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Mermaids are often shown swimming among fish or sometimes holding one. At St. Mary's Priory, Clontuskert, she holds a starfish, a symbol of Christ or Christians. Where images of mermaids swimming with fish occur, it is clear that the intended meaning relates to the notion of temptation and is a warning lest the pious, represented by the fish, be lured by the Deadly Sin of lust. Where a mermaid is shown holding a fish or starfish, it is meant as an image of a Christian soul captured by lust. The inevitable conclusion is that the unfortunate soul yielded to temptation and is now damned. The message is cautionary - a warning so that the faithful will not be similarly seduced. Certainly this is the intended meaning of the 15th century mermaid carved on the chancel arch at St. Brendan's Cathedral at Clonfert. Located at approximately eye level, her placement is such that she is very visible from the nave. At about ten inches high, she can be seen from as far back as the middle of the small church. Although she appears on the right pier as viewed from the nave, she is on the soffit, facing the passageway rather than the nave itself. Her placement situates her at the priest's left as he stood facing the congregation. Evil was associated with the off- or left-hand side from ancient times.

Directly above the mermaid at Clonfert, and at many other locations including Clontuskert, is a beautifully carved, symmetrical knot. Knotwork in Irish and Celtic art has protective associations, so it seems the purpose of this motif is to protect the viewer from the mermaid's dangerous pull since merely gazing upon the creature might incite lust. At Clonfert, on the pier opposite the mermaid, at the priest's right, are three carved angels. It is typical of Irish churches that images associated with good are placed so that they can be seen to balance the potential evil of images of warning, such as mermaids. It is the nature of medieval art that an image may have multiple layers of meaning.

Recognition of this raises the possibility that images of mermaids may have meanings beyond the obvious sexual associations. It is my position that this is the case, especially when the mermaid is pictured with a comb and mirror, as seen in a relief on the steps of the Country Club in Galway (not it's original location, and the date records when the mermaid was moved to this location, not when she was carved). According to Barbara Walter, the mermaid's act of combing her hair was believed to be a form of spell-casting or magic-making. [6] Through the act of combing her hair, she was drawing strength and power to herself. So, images of mermaids with combs seem to be a clear reference to the weaving of a spell upon hapless mortals, the usual interpretation. Certainly a woman's hair was seen as potent source of feminine power. One need go no further than tales of Medusa and Rapunzel to see this. But, also, the widespread custom in early Europe of combing the bride's hair on the night before or the day of her wedding, suggests this. Hair, because of its ability to re-grow relates to re-birth. Meanwhile, the taming of a bride's hair through combing, coupled with the custom of married women wearing their hair "tamed" by putting it up rather than wearing it down and loose, suggests the power associated with it. Hair that was put up or covered with a cap could, metaphorically, be seen as lost - along with any power it was believed to possess. Hair, then, is associated with vital female forces, best harnessed once a woman comes of age.

Yet within the Church, priests practiced a ritual of purification of body and soul that involved combing the hair. [7] Special liturgical combs were used for this rite. They were rectangular with teeth arranged along both sides, many bearing Christian motifs, their overall form very much like the comb held by the Clonfert mermaid and others. Believed to have begun as early as the 4th century, this priestly ritual is documented as late as the 16th century in Western Europe and continues today within the Greek Orthodox Church. The placing of such a liturgical comb in St. Cuthbert's tomb in the 11th century indicates that the ritual was known and practiced in the Irish church as a form of cleansing prior to the celebration of Mass.

Therefore, as with so much of medieval art, the Irish mermaid with her comb and mirror, along with her obvious associations with water, can be interpreted as bearing various levels or nuances of meaning. Mermaids can be interpreted as temptresses who seduce the weak into the deadly sin of lust and, at the same time, a reminder of salvation through the sacrament of baptism.

Images of mermaids are placed at significant boundaries of Irish churches, separating secular from holy space at entrances or, as at Clonfert, dividing the nave from the chancel through placement on the chancel arch. A graphic reminder of the weakness of man, they also point to his need for salvation through the Church and the sacrament of baptism. [8]

Patricia Radford, M.A., lectured art history at Oklahoma State University where she was also Curator of Visual Resources. INSIGHT is grateful to her sister, Louisa, and her father, Robert, for permission to publish this paper.

1. Beryl Rowland. Animals with Human Faces: A Guide to Animal Symbolism. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1973, p. 140.

2. Sean O'Suilleabhan. Folktales of Ireland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966, pp. 272-273.

3.Jim Higgins. Irish Mermaids: Siren, Temptresses and their Symbolism in Art, Architecture and Folklore. Galway: Crow's Rock Press, p. 28.

4. Higgins, p. 13.

5. Gertrude Grace Sill. A Handbook of Symbols in Christian Art. NY: MacMillan, 1975, pp. 22-23.

6. Barbara Walter, The Women's Dictionary of Smbols and Sacred Objects, 1st edition. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1998), p. 129.

7. Sheila K. Redmon, "From the Bearer of the Rising Goddess to the Bearer of the Rising Soul: They Symbolism of Scallop Shells in Early Medieval Art," found in Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Conference of Art Historians, edited by Gay Clarkson & Patricia Radford (Stillwater, OK: Oklahoma State University Department of Art, 2000), p. 71.

8. Arnould Locard, Recherces historiques sur la coquille de pèlerins. (Lyon: 1888), pp. 75-76.

Church Reform

To close this series of essays, below is an introduction to the subject of Church Reform by scholar Dorothy Africa.

Church Reform

The medieval church had to adapt its institutional organization and administrative system to a new cultural environment in Ireland. The dwindling in size of population centers and the weakening civic powers of the state were already evident as Christianity was carried into the frontier regions of Gaul and Britain, but in Ireland even the vestiges of Roman culture and imperial administration in sub-Roman Britain were absent. Consequently, ecclesiastical organization in Ireland was as decentralized as its native systems of secular governance, and its centers of ecclesiastical prominence were monastic rather than metropolitan. During the sixth century, monastic communities were founded throughout Ireland. These centers followed customs of life established by their founders, but only a few monastic Rules survive from the early monastic period in Ireland between the sixth and twelfth centuries. This dearth of information makes references to reform movements somewhat misleading because there appears to have been no standard practice to reform. The term is useful, however, as a description of periodic efforts made within the Irish church to gain or recapture a larger Christian unity of practice.

THE EASTER CONTROVERSY The earliest movements noted in the annals and other written records were both internal dissensions within Ireland, though with larger ramifications extending to England and the continent. The first dispute, which erupted in the early seventh century and was not resolved until the early eighth century, concerned the proper calculation of Easter. The problems over the calculation of Easter had their origins in continental practice. The mathematical calculations were difficult, and so the church issued standard tables, or cycles, listing when the date would fall over a period of years. These tables were subject to change or refinement, however, creating a potential rift in practice. This potential was realized in Ireland, where the most influential communities at Counties Armagh, Bangor, and Iona employed an eighty-four-year cycle established in the fifth century, but Irish communities in the south appear to have adopted a sixth-century version attributed to Victorious of Aquitaine and also favored on the Continent. Leading ecclesiastics from both north and south attempted to resolve the matter by appealing to Rome, but the papal response failed to settle the question. The conflict between the two systems was a major factor in two major political confrontations outside Ireland. One took place on the Continent between the churches of the insular mission led by Columbanus of Bangor and Frankish ecclesiastics in 610, the other in England at the Synod of Whitby in 664 between supporters of Iona and those backing Wilfrid of York. Eventually, the adherents of the older cycle were persuaded to abandon it in favor of the majority view in the early eighth century. CÉLI-DÉ A second issue of potential discord arose within Ireland's monastic culture in the mid-eighth century when some influential figures and communities became advocates for the adoption of a stern ascetic regimen. By the early ninth century, adherents of these practices had become known as Céli-Dé (Culdees), or the companions of God. The term was itself probably older than this ascetic movement but became closely identified with it. The ascetic model for the movement was the communal life of the early Christian monastic communities in Egypt and the desert hermits as described by John Cassian, and other hagiographical texts such as The Life of Anthony by Athanasius. The attempts to emulate these holy men prompted some to seek out sites of extreme isolation. The large number of medieval Irish place-names with the element dysert or disert (desert) in them shows that the ideal of the desert hermit was popular across Ireland. There were also groups of Céli-Dé attached to larger monastic communities or forming separate monasteries. The monastic community of Tallaght under its abbot Maél Rúain (d. 792) was an early proponent and center for the asceticism favored by the Céli-Dé. There are some texts attributed to the community, the most famous of which is the Martyrology of Tallaght. It is clear from their books that communal life was as important as that of the hermit to the Céli-Dé, but the focus was clearly on the spiritual purification of those committed to the religious life rather than to missionary work or pastoral care. In the eleventh century there were a few reports of groups of Céli-Dé at some large monasteries, but asceticism no longer figured as a flourishing ideal within the church. DIOCESAN ORGANIZATION Even as the ideals of the Céli-Dé ossified as a monastic ideal within the Irish church, a new reform movement was on the horizon. During the eleventh century, Ireland had come into closer and more frequent communication with England and the Continent through a variety of channels. By the late eleventh century some of the Viking port communities established in Ireland, such as Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick, had subordinated themselves to English ecclesiastical centers, notably Canterbury and Winchester. There was also a series of papal legates to Ireland in the twelfth century, with both connections serving to assist indigenous Irish reformers in their efforts to renovate and reform Christian social and religious life in Ireland and to establish a diocesan system of governance. Reports of the divergence in Ireland followed in ecclesiastical customs and law from the rest of the church brought intense criticism and rebuke from the outside, heightening the concerns of native Irish churchmen. Beginning in the later eleventh century and extending into the twelfth, another reform movement arose in Ireland, this time centering its attention on ecclesiastical organization and institutional structure rather than the inner religious life. As noted earlier, prominent abbots and other officials of monastic communities dominated the affairs of the Irish church in the early medieval period. These clerics often came from ecclesiastical families closely related to local secular dynasties. In addition, annal records name abbots and other ecclesiastical officials who inherited their positions from their fathers or were succeeded by their sons, indicating either that they remained laymen, or that the Irish church did not require them to be celibate. The Irish church was also castigated for its neglect of pastoral care and instruction to the laity, in part, perhaps, as a consequence of the ideal of the reclusive ascetic cultivated by the Irish religious. Some of the Irish reformers came from the same prominent families historically associated with powerful monasteries. This insider status gave these men the social and political access essential to effecting changes, and the discernment necessary to gauge the pace of change acceptable to contemporary society. In 1101 there was enough internal sympathy toward the cause of reform for a synod to be convened at Cashel. The most prominent ecclesiastic at the synod was Bishop Maél Muire Ua Dunáin. Little is known of his early life and career, but he was clearly of high office and greatly revered. Ua Dunáin may have begun his ecclesiastical career at the community of Clonard, an old and prominent foundation in Meath, where he died in 1117. He was also probably acting at the synod as the papal legate of Pope Pascal II. The brief reports on the resolutions of the synod indicate that it took cautious steps toward reform. The synod moved on several fronts to limit lay control and influence over ecclesiastical property and offices. It also issued a decree against marriage among close family members. Perhaps encouraged by the gains of the Cashel synod, another meeting convened ten years later at Rath Breasail. Ua Dunáin was in attendance, but the presiding ecclesiastic was Gille Easpuig (Gilbert), the bishop of Limerick and successor to Ua Dunáin as papal legate. The details of Gilbert's origins and career are also largely unknown. He was probably of Norse-Irish origin and is known principally for his surviving work, De statu ecclesiastico, on the organization of the church. Also present was Cellach, the prominent reform-minded abbot of Armagh. The gathering at Rath Breasail adopted for Ireland a full-scale reorganization of the administrative structure of the church under two metropolitans, each with a dozen suffragan (diocesan) bishops. The two metropolitan seats were assigned to Counties Armagh and Cashel, and the dioceses assigned to each were generally named according to the old monastic and tribal centers. This allocation was immediately challenged by entrenched contemporary powers, secular and lay, resulting in substantial changes to the original plan in the immediate aftermath of the conference. Continuing the work begun earlier at Cashel, the synod also formally removed all churches in Ireland from lay control. The period between the meeting at Rath Breasail and the Synod of Kells in 1152 was politically very turbulent, but the reform movement continued to advance under the guidance of the successor to Abbot Cellach of Armagh, Maél Maédóc Ua Morgair (Malachy). Malachy had ties to native ecclesiastical families through both his parents, but he allied himself firmly with the cause of reform. He became abbot of Armagh upon the death of Cellach in 1129, and, despite initial hostility toward him, he instituted there the observance of the canonical hours, the practice of regular confession, and other customs of the church. Malachy left the abbacy of Armagh to become first abbot of Bangor, and then a regional bishop, but he continued to work for the national cause of reform. He was instrumental in the introduction into Ireland of the Cistercian order and the spread of the order of Augustine canons. He also presided over meetings to amend the diocesan system drawn up at Rath Breasail. In 1140 Malachy made a trip to Rome, where he requested palls (church vestmants, or cloaks, worn by archbishops) for the two metropolitans from Pope Innocent II. The pope directed Malachy to convene another meeting to confirm the choice before he would grant the request. Malachy returned to his work in Ireland, but did not abandon his hopes for formal recognition of the Irish ecclesiastic centers. He presided over a synod at Inis Pádraig near Dublin in 1148, which provided the needed confirmation, but he died at Clairvaux in 1149 on his way back to Rome. The palls that Malachy had sought arrived in Ireland in 1152 and were conferred upon the metropolitan sees established by the Synod of Kells held in that year. That synod added two additional metropolitan seats at Tuam and Dublin to the original ones at Armagh and Cashel, as well as additional dioceses, but otherwise the earlier scheme was left largely intact. The arrival of the Normans in Ireland in force after 1170 brought new leadership to the Irish church, but the organizational structure created by the reformers remained. The Normans assisted the introduction of continental orders and practices into Ireland, but they were not any more successful in curbing the Irish social practices so disturbing to the church than the earlier reformers had been. Throughout the late medieval period complaints about the marital failings of the native Irish and the crassness of the Irish clergy continued, though these reports are often suspect in light of the political and religious divisions of the period. Bibliography Bernard of Clairvaux. The Life and Death of Saint Malachy the Irishman. Translated and annotated by Robert T. Meyer. 1978. Bethell, Denis. "English Monks and Irish Reform in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries." Historical Studies 8 (1971): 111–135. Carey, John. King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writings. 1998. Charles-Edwards, Thomas M. Early Christian Ireland. 2000. Gwynn, Aubrey. The Irish Church in the 11th and 12th centuries. Edited by Gerard O'Brien. 1992. Hughes, Kathleen. The Church in Early Irish Society. 1966. Dorothy Africa

The Norman Conquest of Ireland

Below is a short introductory essay by a modern scholar on the coming of the Normans to Ireland.

Norman Conquest and Colonization

Seán Duffy

The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland began with a trickle of mercenaries from South Wales landing in County Wexford in the summer of 1167, in aid of the exiled king of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada; substantial reinforcements arrived two years later, who were intent on staying and winning Irish lands. The most famous of the invaders was Richard "Strongbow" de Clare, lord of Pembroke and Chepstow (Strigoil), who did not arrive until August 1170, when he married Mac Murchada's daughter, claimed the right to succeed him as king of Leinster, and conquered Dublin from its Hiberno-Norse rulers. These latter events caused the reigning king of England, Henry II, to reassess the benign but "hands-off" stance that had hitherto characterized his response to the invasion. Since his youth, he had been interested in conquering Ireland himself and adding it to the many territories that were his Angevin "empire." He had accepted Mac Murchada's declaration of fealty, made in Aquitaine in 1166 to 1167, carrying the reciprocal duty to protect Diarmait from his enemies, and had authorized him to seek support from among Henry's vassals.

The problem was that Strongbow was an errant vassal, out of royal favor after having taken the wrong side in the civil war that preceded Henry's accession. The latter had denied him the title of earl for his Welsh estates, and was hardly likely to allow him become king of Leinster, which Strongbow was intending to do following Mac Murchada's death in May 1171. Attempts having failed to forbid Strongbow's departure for Ireland, to call home his associates, and to blockade their supplies, Henry decided to come to Ireland, to regularize the position of Strongbow and the other adventurers who were making rapid strides there, and to oversee the conquest in person. And so, when he landed near Waterford on 17 October 1171, with five hundred knights and four thousand archers, Henry II became the first English king to enter Ireland.

It was no glittering prize, although its Viking-founded towns were certainly an asset, and Henry was quick to take possession of them from Strongbow and his followers. Without its wealthy ports, especially Dublin, Leinster was a far less attractive acquisition, and hence Henry allowed Strongbow to hold it in return for supplying the military service of 100 knights. The kings of Thomond and Desmond, Ó Briain and Mac Carthaig, voluntarily came to Henry at Waterford and submitted to him, and most other important kings and prelates did likewise, the kings hoping that Henry might restrain the more acquisitive of the invaders (he did so, to a degree, for several years), while the clergy believed that the Irish church could be more successfully modernized if subjected to English influence, an arrangement formalized at the Synod of Cashel during Henry's brief visit.

However, Henry did not meet the high king, Ruaidrí Ó Conchobair (Rory O'Connor), and the Anglo-Norman settlement did not proceed easily when faced with his opposition, although his armies proved ineffective against the sophistication of the Norman military machine and the invulnerability to Irish assault of the castles with which they were busy dotting the landscape. A compromise was required, and in 1175 the "treaty" of Windsor was negotiated whereby Ruaidrí accepted the Anglo-Norman colony, which was confined within its existing boundaries (Leinster, Munster from Waterford to Dungarvan, and Meath, which Henry had given to Hugh de Lacy in 1172), while Henry acknowledged Ruaidrí as the paramount power elsewhere. However, this had little appeal for the land-hungry colonists and was soon abandoned in favor of a policy of all-out conquest, with speculative grants of Desmond and Thomond being made to favorites of the king, while John de Courcy won east Ulster for himself in 1177. In that year, a royal council was held at Oxford at which the youngest of Henry's four sons, John, was made lord of Ireland. He was not expected to succeed to the throne, and so Henry envisaged a loose constitutional arrangement whereby Ireland would be ruled by a junior branch of the English royal family.

It was 1185 before John visited Ireland, but his youthful folly in his dealings with the Irish kings alienated them from their new lord, who was busy building castles on Leinster's frontier and granting lands in Munster to the ancestors of the Butlers and Burkes, while what is now County Louth was also taken from the Irish. In terms of fostering relations with the Irish, John's expedition proved disastrous, but it did advance the conquest and saw the establishment in Ireland of a form of government modeled on that of England, a pattern that has prevailed. John's later expedition in 1210 was hardly more productive since he was again inept in his treatment of the native rulers, although he reasserted his faltering authority over the colonists and further expanded the apparatus and reach of royal government. In the meantime, in 1199, John had ascended the throne, and hence the lordship of Ireland and kingship of England were, by an accident of history, reunited in the same person, as remained the case long thereafter.

By the time of John's second visit the country had been immeasurably transformed. The power of the Irish kings, except in the northwestern quadrant of the island, had been minimized, and their best ancestral lands taken from them by Anglo-Norman barons intent on expanding even further. They were able to do so by virtue of their advanced military equipment and tactics and their policy of encastellation. Beginning with rapidly erected timber structures atop earthen mounds (the motte-and-bailey), they were soon constructing massive stone fortresses like Trim and Carrickfergus, a sign for all to see that they were there to stay. But these would have meant nothing to the Irish if conquest were not followed by large-scale colonization. Only then, by the banishment of the native population from the fertile plains or their reduction to servile status, and the introduction of a new, loyal English population, could the colony feel secure and, just as important, provide a profit for those adventurers who had risked all on crossing the Irish Sea to start a new life.

In the aftermath of the invasion, therefore, Ireland witnessed nothing short of an economic and agricultural revolution. The great lords parceled up their conquests among members of the lesser gentry from their homelands who were prepared to join them on this new frontier. The latter in turn persuaded others to follow suit (probably not too difficult at a time of population growth), and as each took ownership of their new estates, they enticed over their English and Welsh tenants, offering more attractive terms of tenure. They built new towns and boroughs and persuaded burgesses to inhabit them by less rigorous taxes and regulation. Just as towns needed merchants, traders, and craftsmen, so too manors needed laborers and parishes needed priests. Everything required to turn this new colony into a facsimile of England was found and shipped over from the neighboring isle, and within a generation or two the transformation was immense. But it was never complete. In the north and west, and in the uplands and bogs, the native Irish remained intact. Denied access to the law and treated as enemies in their own land, they remained a potential threat, and although the colony continued to expand until about the year 1300, its unfinished nature meant that an Irish resurgence was inevitable.

Bibliography

Cosgrove, Art, ed. A New History of Ireland. Vol. 2, Medieval Ireland, 1169–1534. 1987. Reprint, 1993.

Duffy, Seán. Ireland in the Middle Ages. 1997.

Flanagan, Marie Therese. Irish Society, Anglo-Norman Settlers, Angevin Kingship. 1989.

Orpen, Goddard Henry, ed. The Song of Dermot and the Earl. 1892.

Orpen, Goddard Henry. Ireland under the Normans. 4 vols. 1911–1920.

Scott, Alexander Brian, and Francis Xavier Martin, eds. Expugnatio Hibernica: The Conquest of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis. 1978.

Early Medieval Ireland and Christianity

Below is a useful introduction to the history of Christianity in Early Medieval Ireland, even if I don't agree that Saint Brigid may never have existed!

Early Medieval Ireland and Christianity

Colin A. Ireland

The history of early medieval Ireland can be understood only against the background of the conversion to Christianity that introduced ideas that changed the culture and society of pagan Ireland forever. Christian doctrine and theology shaped social behavior and altered cultural practice, yet much was kept that did not contravene Christian conscience as affirmed by some early Irish law tracts. Christianity, as the "religion of the book," required literacy so that believers could read the Bible and perform the Latin liturgy. With literacy in Latin came literacy in the vernacular, that is, in Irish (Gaelic). The early Irish took readily to these intellectual pursuits, and Ireland produced the earliest, and arguably the richest, vernacular literature in medieval Western Europe.

The richness and variety of literary texts in the early Irish language has encouraged many to see this literature as a repository of pre-Christian lore and belief. But most Celticists accept that it is impossible to recreate accurately the pagan beliefs and practices of pre-Christian Ireland based on archaeology and the surviving literature. Most medieval texts that purport to represent pre-Christian Irish characters and events were compiled several centuries after the introduction of Christianity, and vast cultural and societal changes separate them from the times they pretend to portray. Many texts reveal direct influence from identifiable Christian authors and their writings. Critics now accept that a tenth-century Irish saga from the Ulster Cycle, for example, tells us as much about Ireland in the time of its tenth-century redactor as it does about the pre-Christian Irish characters depicted in the saga.

THE EARLY SAINTS

The first firm date in Irish history does not come from Irish sources but rather from the south of France in a chronicle written by Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390–463). Prosper's Chronicle states that in 431 a certain Palladius was ordained bishop by Pope Celestine and sent "to the Irish believing in Christ." Prosper made it clear that Saint Patrick was not the first Christian missionary to Ireland. In addition to Palladius, there are traditions of Christian saints and their communities in Ireland, particularly in the south and east, before Patrick's arrival. These pre-Patrician Christians may have developed the earliest Irish writing system, known as ogham.

Saint Patrick may have flourished any time during the period around 432, when Irish chronicles say that he arrived in Ireland, to around 492, when they claim that he died. These dates represent a period that critics accept as being too long to accurately reflect Patrick's career in Ireland. Most scholars state simply that Patrick flourished sometime in the mid to late fifth century. Although we do not have firm dates for Saint Patrick, we are fortunate that writings by him do survive—his Confession and the Letter to (the soldiers of) Coroticus. Both reveal much about the character and personality of the man even if they tell us little about Ireland in his time.

By the late seventh century the richness of early Irish literature becomes evident in several saints' lives written in Latin. Irish hagiography (from the Greek words meaning "writings about holy persons") includes early texts about the saints Patrick, Brigit, and Columba. Besides their emphasis on religious topics, we see their propaganda value as they attempt to promote certain regions and dynastic families who supported an individual saint's cult.

Two surviving seventh-century lives of Saint Patrick reveal much about how Irish clerics of that period viewed Patrick, but they do not add much reliable information about Patrick himself or about Ireland in his lifetime. Tírechán of Armagh compiled around 670 a collection of anecdotes about Saint Patrick (Collectanea de Sancto Patricio). A near contemporary of Tírechán, Muirchú maccu Machthéni, wrote a life of Saint Patrick around 690 (Vita Sancti Patricii) that is a more finished work of hagiography than Tírechán's. Muirchú's work relates, among other episodes, the conversion of King Lóeguire at Tara and Patrick's contests with Lóeguire's druids. Both of these seventh-century hagiographical works reveal a northern bias in their acceptance of the primacy of the see of Armagh and Patrick as patron saint of all Ireland, and both stress the role of the Uí Néill (O'Neill) dynastic family.

While the hagiography about Patrick tended to emphasize sites and families in central and northern Ireland, Leinster in the east also had its special saint. Cogitosus wrote around 680 a life of the female saint Brigit (Vita Sanctae Brigitae). Brigit's cult is centered in Kildare, a monastic city that became famous for its scriptorium and a center from which many Irish scholars departed for the continental schools in the Carolingian age. There is no firm historical evidence for Brigit, and she may be the one case of an early pagan Celtic goddess being transformed into an Irish saint. The struggle between the Uí Néill dynasts of the north and the ruling families of Leinster are reflected in the competition between Armagh and Kildare, with Armagh eventually gaining supremacy throughout Ireland but allowing Kildare and its saint Brigit to maintain their importance within Leinster.

The first firmly historical Irish saint was Saint Columba (Columba the Elder, c. 521–597; Colum Cille in Irish). Adomnán (+704), abbot of Iona, wrote a life of Columba (Vita Sancti Columbae) sometime in the last decade of the seventh century. The life of Columba follows typical hagiographical motifs rather than offering historical details and describes prophetic revelations and miracles. Columba, like Patrick, was a missionary. As the first Irish pilgrim (peregrinus) saint, Columba left Ireland sometime around 563 and founded the monastery of Iona on a small island off the coast of Scotland. Tradition relates that Columba went into exile as a penance for his part in the dynastic wars of his Uí Néill relatives.

Columba's self-imposed exile from Ireland reveals much about the monastic ideals of his period. It was considered a penance to leave one's homeland to reside among foreign people. But to do so for the love of God, or for Christ's sake, was a powerful act of piety. We see this ideal in Patrick's writings and actions. Patrick, who was originally from Britain, was captured by Irish raiders and taken in his teens as a slave to live in Ireland. When he escaped after years of servitude, his religious faith drove him to return to Ireland to convert to Christianity those who had enslaved him rather than return to his home in Britain. Deorad Dé ("exile of God") was the Irish term for a person willing to undergo self-imposed pilgrimage (peregrinatio) or exile as an act of piety.

Many examples of Irish pilgrim exiles exist. One of the most famous is Columbanus (Columba the Younger, c. 543–615)—not to be confused with Columba the Elder—who spent roughly twenty-five years on the continent as a pilgrim and founded several monasteries in France and one in Italy. Columbanus was educated at the monastery of Bangor, Co. Down, in Northern Ireland. He composed Latin texts that include sermons, a penitential, a monastic rule, and letters, some of which were addressed to popes. His writings reveal the depth of the education that he received at the monastic school in Ireland. He left Bangor sometime around 590, at about the age of fifty, and traveled with twelve companions on the continent, particularly in what is now France, where he founded monasteries at Annegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines. But Columbanus was eager to move on and visit Rome. Although he never fulfilled his wish, he succeeded in founding the most important of his monasteries at Bobbio in Italy. Columbanus died around 615.

This pattern of pilgrim saints founding monasteries on the continent was repeated frequently in subsequent centuries. One of Columbanus's Irish disciples, a monk named Gall, was too ill to travel to Italy with Columbanus and stayed back, eventually founding a monastery at Saint Gallen in Switzerland. Gall died around 630. Another Irish missionary, Kilian, departed Ireland more than a century later with a group of companions and founded a monastery at Würzburg in Germany. Kilian is one of the few Irish pilgrim saints to have been martyred. He was assassinated, along with two companions, as a result of political intrigue after a trip to Rome around 687/9.

MONASTERIES

The ideals of Irish monastic life can be seen in the missionary work and training activities of Irish monasteries. During the early decades of the seventh century many Anglo-Saxon nobles were educated at Irish monasteries in northern Britain, specifically at Iona. When these Irish-educated English nobles returned to England, they invited Irish missionaries into their pagan kingdoms to evangelize. The Anglo-Saxon king Oswald invited the Irish bishop Aidan from Iona into his kingdom, and Aidan founded the monastery at Lindisfarne on the coast of Northumberland around 635. The English historian Bede (+735) shows that Irish missionary activity in northern England was more successful at converting the pagan English than that started by Rome in 597 from Canterbury in the south of England.

Monastic schools in Ireland became centers of excellence for peoples from all over Europe, as can be seen by tracing the English who came to study and train as missionaries in them. The historian Bede and an earlier English contemporary Aldhelm (+709) report that sizeable contingents of English students trained as missionaries in Ireland, specifically at Rath Melsigi, Co. Carlow, in Leinster. These English monks trained in Ireland in order to convert their pagan Germanic relatives on the continent. Several of them had successful ecclesiastical careers after their Irish training.

Bede and Aldhelm, as clerics, emphasized religious training, but both confirm that secular subjects were also taught at Irish monastic schools. Study of the scriptures was paramount, but they both make it clear that students often traveled from site to site seeking out teachers who had specialized knowledge in secular subjects as well. Bede said that the Irish willingly welcomed the English students, gave them food, and provided them with books and instruction, without seeking any payment (Book iii, chapter 27).

Much early Irish literature is associated with monasteries, which shows that many of the learned persons of Ireland, whether secular or religious, received their educations at monastic schools. This means as well that the literature associated with these monasteries is preserved in both Latin and Irish.

The monastery of Iona, founded by Columba, encouraged literary production in both languages. For example, one of its more famous abbots, Adomnán (679–704), mentioned already as the author of the Latin "Life of Columba," wrote a description in Latin of the significant sites in the Holy Land called "On the Holy Places" (De Locis Sanctis). Abbot Adomnán also wrote and promulgated a law (Cáin Adomnáin, 697), written in Irish, which was intended to protect women, children, and clerics from the ravages of warfare.

Columba himself, the founder of Iona, has a Latin hymn, "Exalted Creator" (Altus Prosator), attributed to him, although not all critics accept the attribution. Three poems in praise of Columba rank among the oldest complete poems in the Irish language. One of them, the "Eulogy for Columba" (Amra Choluim Chille), has been dated on linguistic grounds to around 600, which coincides well with Columba's death date of 597. According to tradition, Dallán Forgaill, a professional poet, composed it in order to eulogize Columba on his death. This poem is important for several reasons besides its great age. It reflects an ancient tradition of praising secular rulers, but it is unusual for praising instead a religious leader. It demonstrates how the learning of the monasteries blended native customs with Christian teachings. For example, it complies with the norms of secular eulogy by noting Columba's aristocratic background and by providing genealogical information that can be corroborated in other sources. Columba is called a great champion, but rather than battling against his enemies and sharing largesse among his subjects, Columba excels in self-denial and Christian learning. His praiseworthy qualities are not those of a secular ruler, but of an ascetic, scholarly cleric.

The monastery at Bangor also produced learned religious texts in Latin beside a vibrant vernacular literature of Irish tales. We have already noted that Columbanus, the Bangor-educated missionary to the continent, corresponded with popes and wrote sermons, a penitential, and a monastic rule in Latin. In the late seventh century a collection of beautiful religious poems and hymns in Latin, the "Antiphonary of Bangor," was compiled there.

Important vernacular literature also came from Bangor. "The Voyage of Bran" (Immram Brain), perhaps the earliest example of the Irish "otherworld voyage," was written at Bangor. It tells of Bran's voyage across the Western Ocean and recounts the wonders that he encountered in a sinless otherworld. It employs a motif whereby characters in a pre-Patrician context prophesy the coming of Christianity and the salvation of the Irish. Tales in Irish about the early cultural hero Mongán mac Fiachnai also originated at Bangor. The tales about Mongán portray the Irish Sea as a highway between Ireland and Britain and relate episodes that involve battles against English kingdoms.

The mixture of Latin and Irish writings, like the texts produced at monasteries, is well illustrated by early Irish law tracts. Most, but not all, law texts produced for the church tend to be written in Latin. The "Irish Collection of Canons" (Collectio canonum hibernensis) of about 725, the primary example of Irish church law, is based on biblical and patristic sources. Penitentials and monastic rules represent the Irish tendency, evident in the vernacular law tracts, to codify and schematize social organization and behavior. A group of ecclesiastical laws in the vernacular is represented by cána (sg. cáin), of which Cáin Adomnáin (Adomnán's Law, 697) has already been cited. Other examples include Cáin Phátraic (Patrick's Law, 737) and Cáin Domnaig (Law of Sunday).

The majority of secular law tracts, written in Irish, were redacted between around 650 and around 750. A collection of vernacular law tracts called the Senchas Már (the "Great Tradition") appears to have been compiled in the northern midlands. A separate group of "poetico-legal" texts called the "Nemed school" probably originated in Munster. These law tracts reveal a great deal about the hierarchical nature of early Irish society and social custom. They discuss social rank and status, kinship structure, distribution of inheritance, rights to property, making and enforcing of contracts, the grading of professions, and so on. It is significant that the law tracts tended to be compiled during the same period that saw the spread of ecclesiastical literature.

KINGSHIP

The study of early Irish politics is made difficult by the proliferation of names of petty kings, none of whom ever clearly rose to prominence. The genealogies and regional king-lists preserved from early Irish sources are particularly rich when compared to other parts of medieval Western Europe. Part of the problem can be understood by recognizing that the Irish word translated as "king" (rí) does not designate a centralized, powerful monarch, as we might encounter on the continent, for example. Instead, it is used to describe the leader of any small local group based on blood kinship (tuath). These groups existed in varying hierarchical relationships to one another so that a local "king" might be a vassal to a stronger "king" in the next valley, and that neighboring "king" would in turn be subject to a regional "king" who might control, at least nominally, an entire province.

The politico-geographical divisions of Ireland have a long history, whether the divide is between north (Leth Cuinn) and south (Leth Moga) or into the provinces that exist to this day: Ulster, Connacht, Munster, and Leinster. The notion that one king could rule all of Ireland—usually called the "High King of Tara"—had developed by our period, although it remained an ideal rather than a reality. Nevertheless, this ideal implies the incipient concept of an Irish nation encompassing the entire island.

The idealized concept of kingship was circumscribed by certain inherited proscriptions. For example, a king must not be physically blemished, as this implied an imperfection in his reign. The sacral character of kingship is shown by the idea that a just, righteous king would have a peaceful, prosperous reign; his "king's truth" (fír flathemon) guaranteed the land's fertility. Sovereignty, as an abstract concept, was portrayed as a female so that a king, when he assumed the kingship, symbolically married his kingdom.

Kingship was not based on a strict father to son (or closest male relative) succession, but rather eligibility for kingship was based on blood kinship extending over several generations. This meant that grandsons and great-grandsons might be eligible to contend for the kingship if they could muster support from relatives and political allies. This system appears on the surface to provide a democratic method of selecting the most qualified and popular candidate, but it often led to social strife and political division.

In the northern half of Ireland the Uí Néill dynasts dominated the political scene, but the Uí Néill must be understood as interrelated families who exerted the greatest political control. The Uí Néill themselves divided into northern and southern divisions, and each of these subdivided again into various branches. Each branch of the Uí Néill claimed descent from Niall of the Nine Hostages (Niall Noígiallach), a quasi-historical fifth-century character. The various branches of the Uí Néill, north and south, alternated as they supplied the high king of Tara, without any branch ever clearly predominating. Other dynastic families from other parts of Ireland frequently occupied the high kingship during this time as well.

The hierarchical nature of early Irish society is well illustrated in this concept of descent through prominent families. It can be seen functioning in Irish monasteries as well. For example, nearly all of the abbots at Iona from Columba (+597) to Adomnán (+709) were descended from Columba's own family, the Cenél Conaill branch of the northern Uí Néill.

In Munster a high kingship was centered on the ecclesiastical site at Cashel, Co. Tipperary. The ruling dynastic families in Munster were known as the Éoganachta, descended from Corc of Cashel, a contemporary of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The Éoganachta of Munster, like the Uí Néill, divided into two major divisions, this time between east and west, and these two major branches had their own subdivisions. Connacht takes its name from the Connachta, a tribal group descended from Conn the Hundred-Battler (Conn Cétchathach), who is also an ancestor of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The Uí Briúin produced the major dynastic families of Connacht. In Leinster by the early historical period the Uí Cheinnselaig and Uí Dúnlainge were the families that dominated the region, but the major Leinster dynastic families had already passed their peak of influence.

THE VIKING PERIODS

In 795 the first recorded Norse raid took place on Ireland's north coast. This Irish raid came soon after the first attacks in England. Iona was also attacked in 795 and again in 802. In 806 sixty-eight persons were killed at Iona by raiders. In 807 a new monastic community was begun at Kells, Co. Meath, and was completed by 814, by which time much of the administration had been moved from Iona to Kells. It was during this period or immediately before it that the magnificent illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells, was completed.

There are two great periods of Norse activity in Ireland. The first centers on the first four decades of the ninth century. During this period the incursion consisted primarily of hit-and-run raids conducted by fast-moving, seagoing Vikings. In the second half of the ninth century the Norse began establishing permanent settlements that eventually became important commercial and trade centers. These include modern port cities such as Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick. Permanent Norse settlements were more prominent in the southern half of Ireland, in part because of the success of the northern Uí Néill at resisting their incursions.

These Norse cities came to represent small kingdoms within Ireland that traded with, fought against, and in turn allied themselves with Irish kingdoms. By the early decades of the tenth century Irish kingdoms were often as not successful in their struggles against the Norse kingdoms. The Norse kingdoms tended to remain independent of each other and never presented a unified force against the Irish. The Norse in Ireland never controlled large areas the way they did in England, where vast territories came under the Danelaw. In France the entire province of Normandy memorializes the Norse kingdom that was established there and which eventually came to exert power over much of western Europe, including Ireland.

The Battle of Clontarf (1014) has often been presented as the defeat of the Viking invaders by the Irish king Brian Boru. But, in fact, the battle represents the successful dynastic wars of the Uí Briain/O'Brien descendants of Brian Boru of Munster in their rise to supremacy and reveals Norse and Irish kingdoms allied with and against each other. The Uí Briain were allied with the Norse of Limerick against the Norse of Dublin and their Irish allies from Leinster. While Brian Boru's victory (he was killed in the battle) may have marked the gradual demise of the Norse kingdom in Dublin, its real significance was the rise of the Uí Briain dynasts of Munster. With the decline of the Norse kingdoms we can recognize the outlines of modern Ireland emerging as the trading cities founded by the Norse continued to thrive.

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