they possessed no private property, and were wont to lead a very sober, righteous, and godly life, as well as one of strict continence, they did nevertheless, at the same time, like Kentegern himself, live apart from one another in the separate abodes to which they belonged, and in which they had set themselves to pursue their course Origin of of study and mental culture; whence they used to be the name called singular clerics, and popularly, Culdees. Culdees. "Seeing then that Britain had been visited with so Kentegern many calamities, and Christianity therein so often over- visits Rome. cast with clouds, or even utterly destroyed; there had sprung up there at various periods various rites opposed to the system of the Holy Church of Rome, and the decrees of the Holy Fathers. In order then to become possessed of the knowledge and ability required for obviating and remedying all these evils, B. Kentegern on seven different occasions started from his monastery aforesaid, and made his way to Rome. "On one occasion however he visited Rome while B. His kind reGregory was presiding over the apostolic see, &c. To ception by P. Gregory this most holy chief pontiff he gave a full account of his the Great. entire life, his election to the pontificate, and consecration, and all the circumstances which had occurred to him, in their due order. And this holy pope who was mighty in the spirit of counsel and discretion, as having been filled with the Holy Ghost, when he observed him to be a man of God, and full of the grace of the Holy Ghost, confirmed his election and consecration, as he had the assurance that both had proceeded from God's appointment. And in compliance with his own often repeated request, which was with difficulty obtained, he supplied whatsoever was defective in his cousecration, and sent him forth to the work of the ministry assigned to him by the Holy Ghost. .. What he brought "The Holy Pontiff Kentegern, having received the home with apostolic absolution and benediction, returned home him. Note on these ex Tinmuth. again, bringing over with him volumes of the canons, and a great many other books of Holy Scripture; and also privileges, and many remembrances of the saints, and church ornaments, and other matters useful for the furnishing of the house of God." Passing over the antiscriptural tendency of tracts from these extracts in regard to apostolic poverty, Roman supremacy, &c., they are interesting as illustrative of the old Irish and British notions of Church discipline in some particulars; and also as making the name of "Culdees" on which so much has been said and written, originate with the disciples of the first bishop of Glasgow. The Irish reproved for their mode of consecration lish pri mates Lanfranc and Anselm. The charge," that bishops are consecrated by a single bishop" was one of those brought against the Irish by Lanfranc of Canterbury in his letter by the Eng- to Turlogh, A.D. 1074. And again Anselm, in or about 1100, writing to Muriardach, king of Ireland, makes a similar complaint. "It is stated," says he, "that bishops are elected every where in your country, and appointed to their office without any fixed episcopal district; and that the bishop is ordained by a single bishop like any presbyter." And the same circumstance is also strikingly brought before our notice in a well known legendary anecdote of St. Columbkille, who went, as we are informed, to Their sys tem illustrated in the case of S. Columbkille. pp. 424, 432 sup. Etchen, bishop of Clonfad, for the purpose of being ordained bishop by him, although in the end he was made only a priest instead. nation Now to excuse the ancient Irish for following Dr. Lania practice so contrary to the general usages and gan's expla laws of the Catholic Church, it has been their consug- duct. gested, and much leaned upon by some, that those Irish prelates who received ordination from a single bishop, were not themselves cathedral bishops, but chorepiscopi, or coadjutorbishops, nominated to labour in rural districts; in whose case such a mode of ordination would be in no way uncanonical. For while the First General Council of Nice, by its 4th Canon, required that there should be at least three bishops present at the consecration of the former, (although the Apostolical Constitutions and Canons say, three or two,) the council of Antioch permits the chorepiscopus to be ordained by the bishop of the city within the jurisdiction of which his district lay. The following is Lanigan's view of the matter, given at (vol. ii. p. 128) in connection with the story of Columba aforesaid. "Whether the anecdote be true or not, it seems to indicate that it was not unusual in Ireland to have persons consecrated by one bishop. And yet it is certain that Lanigan's Ec. Hist. ii. 126. His notions about the multiplicity of chorepis mitive ages, &c. copi in Ire the Irish clergy were well acquainted with the decrees land in pri- of the Council of Nice and others on this subject. To explain this seeming paradox we must observe that the order of Chorepiscopi was very general in Ireland. They were undoubtedly, at least very many of them, invested with episcopal powers; although being subordinate to the regular bishop in whose diocese they were stationed, they were not allowed to exercise some parts of them without his permission. Now these chorepiscopi used to be ordained or consecrated by the bishop, properly so called, or ordinary of the diocese, without his being bound to apply for the assistance of other bishops. See the 10th canon of the Council of Antioch, and Bingham (Orig. Ec. Book 2, ch. 14, s. 5,) who adds, that the city bishops (ordinaries) were accountable for the ordination of the country bishops (Chorepiscopi) to a provincial synod. In the case of Columba it is very natural to suppose, that the intention was to make him simply a chorepiscopus, so as to entrust him with the care of the rural district adjoining Dairmagh (Durrow;) and accordingly it was not necessary to apply for his consecration to more bishops than one. As the Irish had but one name for bishops and chorepiscopi, it is often difficult to know whether persons mentioned in our Church History were ordinaries of dioceses or of that subordinate class. If we read of their having been consecrated by only one bishop, we may justly conclude that they were only chorepiscopi. Or if we find them, as is often the case, moving from one country or province to another, a similar inference may be drawn," &c. The intention, in Columba's case, what? Such views apparently Now although these notions appear to be redestitute of garded with some degree of favour by my learned friend the Rev. W. Reeves (Ecc. Ant. p. 127,) in the facts; I cannot but confess that to me they appear any solid foundation and rather contrary to ments of utterly unfounded. I see no proof whatsoever that the old Irish observed any distinction between ordinaries and chorepiscopi. If they knew any thing about the peculiar office of the latter, it might perhaps with almost as much appearance of reason be asserted that all their bishops were chorepiscopi, excepting him of Armagh. But if such an order had existed, I suppose Lanfranc and Anselm would have been as likely the stateto have been aware of the circumstance, and to history. have made all due allowance for it, as Dr. Lanigan, or any of the moderns. And if it were possible for such an order to have been very prevalent in Ireland, without those famous and learned English primates being aware of it, the charge might in that case have been easily refuted by an explanation of the matter on the part of any of the Irish authorities, and then it would not have been repeated as it was. although tion, may It is true that the Irish may have been ac- The Irish quainted with the triple mode of consecration, not adoptand used it on some occasions, especially such of ing genethem as laboured in other countries, as in Eng- triple mode rally the land for instance; a case of which has been of consecrabrought under our notice in the consecration of still have Cedd mentioned in the preceding article. One other instance of the kind, occurring in Ireland its use elseitself, is cited by the Rev. W. Reeves from the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick; in which it is known somewhat of where. |