I.
The Culdees of the British Isles, as they appear in History, with an Appendix of Evidences.By William Reeves, D.D. Gill, Dublin, 1864, pp. v.—163.
In treating of the life of St. Columba, some years ago, Dr. Reeves expressed his hope that he should have an early opportunity of dealing with the Culdee question in a special dissertation. Much to the satisfaction of all lovers of Irish sacred antiquities, among whom Dr. Reeves' reputation is deservedly great, this hope was realised towards the close of 1860, when the author read before the Royal Irish Academy two papers on the Culdees. These papers form the matter of the work under notice; and we propose to give an account of it to our readers as much as possible in the author's own words.
Before entering upon his subject, Dr. Reeves sets forth the object he has in view, and the method by aid of which he proposes to attain it. Persuaded that indulgence in speculation has brought great detriment to the cause of Irish history and antiquities, he puts forward in these pages "not so much his own views on the subject, as a comprehensive statement of trustworthy materials upon which to form a sound and philosophical opinion". With this object in view, but one method was open to him, namely, to collect and arrange all the scattered evidence upon the subject which his thorough and varied acquaintance with Irish, Scotch, and English materials of history, both published and unpublished, enabled him to accumulate. This he has done with fulness and precision, and having completed his task, he leaves it to the impartial reader to combine the details placed before him, and draw his conclusions for himself. Of this impartiality the author believes that he sets an example in his own proper person; whatever his private sentiments may be on the points at issue, he professes to hold them back. Not that he is cold or indifferent to his subject, for he declares that there is "one weakness, if it be a weakness, to which he must plead guilty, and that is, earnestness in the cause of Ireland's ancient dignity". By that earnestness we are all gainers, and the labours it has dictated to the author will always hold a high place in Irish literature.
The work consists of four parts, with a valuable appendix. The first part contains preliminary observations, and is divided into two sections—one on the origin of the name Céle-dé, orCuldee, the other being devoted to an analysis of that name. Part II. is entitled "The Céle-dé in Ireland", and consists of ten sections, respectively treating of strangers in Ireland called Céle-dé, of the Céle-dé of Tallaght, of Armagh, of Clonmacnoise, of Clondalkin, of Monaincha, of Devenish, of Clones, of Pubble, and of Scattery Island. Part III. is headed "The Céle-dé or Kelidei of Scotland", and has fourteen sections, the first being occupied with general remarks, the others with the Kelidei of St. Andrew's, of Dunkeld, of Brechin, of Rosemarkie, of Dunblane, of Dornoch, of Lismore, of Hy, of Lochleven, of Abernethy, of Monymusk, of Muthill, and of Monifreth. Part IV., on theColidei of England and Wales, has two sections—one on the Colidei of York, the other on the Colidei of Bardsey. The appendix consists of evidences from authorities referred to in the essay, and constitutes a valuable collection of documents, the importance of some of which extends far beyond the question which they are here intended to illustrate.
In laying before our readers the substance of the contents of Part I., we shall take the liberty of inverting the author's order of arrangement, and commence by the analysis of the word. The name Célé-dé is composed of the two wordscéleanddé. The wordcéléis of frequent occurrence in the early Irish manuscripts, and is the usual gloss on the wordssocius,maritus, where they occur in the Wurtzburg copy of St. Paul's Epistles and the St. Gall Priscian. From this it passes into the pronominal sense ofalius,alter, and the adverbial ofseorsum. More rarely it has the sense ofservus, and in O'Davoren's Glossary is explained bygilla= "a servant"; and with this interpretation it is found in modern Irish and Gaelic dictionaries. The other component,dé, is the genitive ofDia, "God", and is found as a kind of religious intensitive in combination with certain monastic terms, as anchorita Dei, monialis Dei.
Thus Célé-dé may mean "spouse of God", or "friend of God", or "servant of God". Dr. Reeves prefers the last-mentioned interpretation, for the following reasons. The devotion and self-denial peculiar to the monastic life procured for those who followed it the special designation ofservi Dei, which in time acquired a technical application, so thatservus Deiandmonachusbecame convertible terms,ancilla Deisignified a nun, andservire Deoa monastic life. In this sense, as Dr. Reeves shows by numerous quotations, it runs through the works of the Latin fathers, the acts of councils, and the biographies of saints. The writings of St. Gregory the Great (called in Ireland Bel-oir, the golden-mouthed) recommended this meaning especially to Ireland, where that father was in the highest repute. "Familiarised, therefore, to the expressionservus Dei, it is only reasonable to supposethat the Irish would adopt it in their discourse, and find a conventional equivalent for it in the language of their country. To this origin we may safely refer the creation of the Celtic compoundcélé-Dé, which in its employment possessed all the latitude of its model, and in the lapse of ages underwent all the modifications or limitations of meaning which the changes of time and circumstances or local usage produced in the class to whom the epithet was applied" (pag. 2). Of this there are many examples: thus—1, the Four Masters, in the Irish Annals of 1595, apply the term to the Dominican Friars of Sligo; 2, the Book of Fenagh uses it of St. John the Evangelist; 3, in the Book of Leinster and the Book of Lismore, St. Moling, Abbot and Bishop of Ferns (ob. 697), classes himself among the céle-n-Dé, and implies that his associates were the miserable, that is, the sick and lepers; 4, In Scotland, whither the term entered with the Scotic immigrants, we find in the middle of the thirteenth century certain ecclesiastics entitledKeledei sive Canonici. Hence Dr. Reeves is of opinion that the term Céle-dé was not a distinctive name borne uniformly by any one order, but a term of most various application—now borne by hermits, now by conventuals; now regulars, now seculars; now those bound by poverty, now those free to hold property. Even when they became relaxed and corrupt, they retained their ancient name. Speaking of the Kelidei of St. Andrew's in Scotland, Dr. Reeves believes that the estate of matrimony was no disqualification for the office of a Kelideus; while Van Hecke, the Bollandist (Acta SS.Octobr., tom. viii. p. 166, b), from the same passage of theHistoriadraws the very opposite conclusion. When at last Céle-dé does become a distinctive term, it is only so as contrasting the old-fashioned Scotic monks with the children of mediaeval institutions.
The name Céle-dé is taken by Toland, O'Reilly, and O'Curry, to mean "spouse of God", and to contain an allusion to the celibacy, the seclusion, and the devotion of the ancient monks of Ireland. But Dr. Reeves thinks that there is an incongruity in the expression "spouse of God", and the nature of the compound does not require such an interpretation. No doubtsponsa Deidoes occur in ecclesiastical language formonialis, but he has not been able to discover an instance wheresponsus Deihas been used as an equivalent formonachus.
The York Chartulary, Giraldus Cambrensis, and the Armagh records, make Céle-dé =colideusandcoelicula, as ifcélewas equivalent to the Latincolo. Thus Céle-dé, would be the same as the Latin wordDeicola. The English nameCuldeegrew out of the formCuldeus, first introduced by Hector Boece, and sanctioned by the practice of George Buchanan.
One of the earliest examples on record of the use of the term Céle-dé occurs in theLife of St. Findan, published by Goldastus (Rer. Alamannicar. Scriptores, vol. i. p. 318). This saint flourished in the year 800, and his life was compiled not long after.
In the first section of Part II. it is shown that theCéle-déwere not supposed by the Irish to be peculiar to this country. In section the second the community at Tallaght is noticed as presenting to us, if we may credit certain Irish records, the term Céle-dé in a definite sense, and in local connexion with a religious institution. In the rule composed by Maelruain the members of that community are styledCéle-n-Dé, either in the sense of an order strictly so-called, or more likely in the sense of "ascetics", or "clerics of stricter observance". As to the rule of St. Carthach of Lismore (printed from O'Curry's MSS., pag. 112, 172,Irish Ecclesiastical Record, vol. i. part 1), Dr. Reeves observes that "if it be a genuine composition, or even a modernized copy, it will follow that the Céle-dé were a separate class previously to the year 636, when St. Carthach died, and that they were distinct from the order called monks"—(pag. 8). Now of the whole family of monastic rules to which St. Carthach's belongs, O'Curry writes that "of the authenticity of these pieces there can be no reasonable doubt; the language, the style, and the matter are quite in accordance with the times of the authors".24
In Armagh, the Colidei were officiating attendants at the altar and choir, before 1126, when the introduction of the canons regular diminished their influence and importance. They were, however, continued in their endowments and religious functions, but in a less prominent position. Their head became precentor, and the brethren performed the duties of vicars in the choir. At Clonmacnoise they were connected with an hospital; at Clondalkin, Monahincha, Devenish, Clones, Pubble, and Scattery, they had establishments more or less important.
From Ireland the Colidei passed into Scotland, the primitive history of the Church of which is essentially Irish in its character. The Keledei of Scotland appear for the first time in the history of St. Kentigern, or Munghu, as compiled by Jocelin at the close of the twelfth century from much earlier authorities. They were understood by the Scotch, in the twelfth century, to have been "a religious order of clerks, who lived in societies, under a superior, within a common enclosure, but in detached cells, associated in a sort of collegiate rather than coenobitical brotherhood—solitaries in their domestic habits, though united in the common observances, both religious and secular, of a strictsodality. Such was the nucleus of the great city of Glasgow". Pinkerton says of them: "The Culdees were surely only Irish clergy. In the gradual corruption of the monastic order they married, and left their Culdeeships to their children". But he is mistaken in deriving their origin from St. Columba; no doubt they were found in lapse of time in churches which that saint or his disciples founded, but in Dr. Reeves' opinion their name was in no way distinctive. Irish annals have only one mention of Céli-dé as existing in Hy, and that example is of so late a period as 1164. F. Van Hecke, the Bollandist, says: "Ceterum et nos quoque ejus sumus opinionis ut nullam inter Columbranos monachos et Culdees cognatsinem intercessiore credemus"—(Act. SS., Octob., tom. viii. p. 166 a).
It would far exceed our limits to follow Dr. Reeves in treating of the Scotch Kelidean houses.
In York, at the dissolution of monasteries, there existed an hospital called St. Leonard's, the chartulary of which tells us that in 836 King Athelstan found in St. Peter's Church, York, men of holy life, calledKolidei, who maintained out of scanty resources a number of poor men. The king, in return for their prayers, and to enable them to do good, granted to them a thrave of corn from every plough-land in the diocese of York, a donation which existed until a late period under the name of Peter-corn. The community founded an hospital which was afterwards called St. Leonard's. "The presence of this community in York is a curious vestige of Irish influence, discernible amidst long continued Saxon usage, which, as we learn from Bede, was, in ecclesiastical polity, antagonistic to the Scotic system".
In Wales, the Isle of Bardsey, off Carnarvon, alone offers an example of Céli-dé. Giraldus Cambrensis describes them in hisItinerarium Cambriae, 2, 6, p. 865.
The practical value of Dr. Reeves' work is much increased by an excellent index.
II.
Joseph Carriere, late Superior-General of the Sulpicians, and Vicar-General of Paris; St. Sulpice and the Church of France in his time.By T. J. O'Mahony, D.D., D.C.L. Dublin: Mullany, 1865, pp. 193.
1 (return)No. viii., May, pag. 375.
2 (return)In the article we refer to the learned author (pag. 379) writes that the nameMecharandMacharare "clearly one and the same name". Their identity is indeed quite manifest in the extracts from our Irish writers, to which we will just now have occasion to refer.
3 (return)Page 376.
4 (return)For further accounts of the O'Meachairs see the first volume ofCambrensis Eversus, by the late lamented Dr. Kelly, pag. 269. See also the Four Masters passim, where they are called the dynasts of Ui Cairin.
5 (return)Misericordias Domini: Histoire de ma conversion au Catholicisme. Par le Doct. Hug. Laemmer, Pretre du diocese d'Ermland, Traduit de l'allemand, pp. 206. Casterman, Tournai, 1863.
6 (return)1, Prague; 2, Vienna; 3, Friburg; 4, Munich; 5, Olmutz; 6, Graetz; 7, Würzburg; 8, Munster.
7 (return)1, Tübingen; 2, Innspruck; 3, Breslau; 4, Bonn. These are calledparitarianuniversities: with the exception of the Faculty of Theology, all the other faculties are Protestant. There are two Faculties of Theology, one Catholic and the other Protestant.
8 (return)1, Heidelberg; 2, Leipsic; 3, Rostock; 4, Greifswald; 5, Marburg; 6, Koenigsburg; 7, Jena; 8, Kiel; 9, Halle; 10, Göttingen; 11, Erlangen; 12, Stutgardt; 13, Giesen; and 14, Berlin.
9 (return)See Farrar'sCritical History of Free Thought, pag. 390.
10 (return)TheKirchen-Zeitungand theKreuz-Zeitungare the organs of this body.
11 (return)Father F. Mertian, of the Society of Jesus;Etudes, etc.,par les Péres de la Compagne de Jesus. No. 32, May, pag. 59.
12 (return)The Tübingen School and its antecedents; a Review of the History and Present Condition of Modern Theology. By R. W. Mackay, M.A. London: Williams and Norgate.
13 (return)No. 5, July, 1863, p. 235.
14 (return)Apologia, page 63.
15 (return)On the condition of the Protestant church in Germany, see Döllinger's "The Church and the Churches", page 267, M'Cabe's Translation, 1842.
16 (return)Father Perrone makes frequent reference to Hengstenberg's Biblical labours, especially in tract.de Incarnatione, part I.
17 (return)The following are some of the works published by Dr. Laemmer since his conversion:
1.Ευσεβιου του Παμφιλου Εκκλησιαστικης Ἱστοριας Βιβλοι Δεκα.Eusebi Pamphili Historiae Ecclesiasticae libri decem. Graecum textum collatis qui in Germaniae et Italiae bibliothecis asservantur Codicibus et adhibitis praestantissimis editionibus recensuit atque emendavit, latinam Henrici Valesii versionem passim correctam subjunxit, apparatum criticum apposuit, fontes annotavit, prolegomena et indices adjecit D. Hugo Laemmer, Presbyter Varmiensis. Fasc. I. Cum tabulis duabus Specimina Codicum septem continentibus. Scaphusiae sumtibus librariae Hurterianae. MDCCCLIX.
2. De codicibus Recensionibusque Historiae Ecclesiasticae Eusebii Caesariensis scripsit D. Hugo Laemmer, 1860.
3. Anecdota Baroniana, ex codd. MSS. collegit, selectaque specimina edidit D. Hugo Laemmer. Rome, 1860.
4. Monumenta Vaticana, historiam ecclesiasticam saeculi XVI. illustrantia. Ex tabulariis S. Sedis Apostolicae secretis excerpsit, digessit, recensuit, prolegomenisque et indicibus instruxit Hugo Lämmer. Una cum fragmentis Neapolitanis ac Florentinis, 8vo.
18 (return)Analect. praef.; also part i. p. 39, et seqq. See also Curry's Historical Memoirs, p. 39, seqq. Some late Protestant writers have not hesitated to assert that the bloodhounds were unknown to the executors of English law. However, the testimony of Dr. Roothe, an eye-witness, who often shared the perils of his flock, is unimpeachable; and, moreover, in the present instance, we have his testimony confirmed by the charter of James I., published in Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy, authorizing Henry Tuttesham, in 1614, "to keep four men and twelve couple of hounds in every county of Ireland, for seven years". Although the permission was granted, in order to destroy the wolves which infested the country, we know from several authorities how such permissions were perverted, by the ingenuity of the persecutors, to compass the destruction of the Catholics. See Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy, vol. ii., p. 77.
19 (return)This sketch is sec. 8 of the Relatio entitled "Brevis informatio ad Illmos. D.D. Cardd. S. Congreg. Prop. Fidei, de statu Religionis in Regno Hiberniae, et praesente ejus necessitate, exhibita die 4 Febr. 1623". Ex Archiv. S. Congregat.
20 (return)These tombs were repaired about twenty years ago by the late Dominick O'Reilly Esq., of Kildangan, county Kildare, a sincere lover of his country and its antiquities.
21 (return)SeeRecord, vol. i. part ii. pages 389, 390.
22 (return)The date of the publication of the constitution "Romanus Pontifex" is 20th December, 1585.
23 (return)For letter seeIrish Ecclesiastical Record, vol. i, part ii. page 54.
24 (return)Lect. xviii., pag. 373-4, vol. i.
Transcriber's Notes:Minor obvious typographic errors have been corrected.Inconsistencies in the usage of capitalization, accents and ligatures are preserved as printed.This issue as printed ends with a summary for the book by T. J. O'Mahony, without an accompanying review.A table of contents has been added for the convenience of the reader.
Transcriber's Notes:
Minor obvious typographic errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in the usage of capitalization, accents and ligatures are preserved as printed.
This issue as printed ends with a summary for the book by T. J. O'Mahony, without an accompanying review.
A table of contents has been added for the convenience of the reader.