Oriental'.' Elsewhere Mr. Haddan speaks of 'the common but utterly groundless idea of a specially Greek origin of the British Church"," After such decided expressions of opinion from persons so qualified to form them, it is yet hoped that it may not be considered as labour thrown away to accumulate and lay before the reader the various converging facts which, though they do not establish a specially Oriental origin of the Celtic Church, yet go far to save such a theory from the charge of being 'utterly groundless,' and explain how it grew up. This theory is of course quite distinct from the ethnological question as to the origin of Celtic nations, and from the philological question as to the relation of the Celtic language to the Indo-Germanic family. Its discussion is complicated by the fact that the date of the evidence offered is sometimes difficult to ascertain. Such similarities as that of British weapons found in barrows, in form and alloy, to those found in the plains of Phoenicia, and of cromlechs and pillars in Ireland to stone monuments in Palestine 3, have reference to an original connection long anterior to the introduction of Christianity, and are chronologically irrelevant to the subject in hand. The similarity in these and other points between Cornwall, Ireland and the East, is almost certainly due to the fact that in the earliest historical times the great traders and navigators were the Phoenicians, who brought their commerce to these shores, and may have influenced the manners and customs of their inhabitants in their architecture, arts, and manners. With regard to the carved symbol of the Greek cross which is frequently found, but not in a majority of cases, on the ancient sculptured stones of Christian Scotland, while in Cornwall and Brittany the same form of the cross preponderates, and with regard to other supposed signs of 1 Councils and Eccles. Doc. i. p. xix. Romains, p. 210. Stuart, J., Sculptured Stones of Scotland, II. Blight, J. T., Ancient Crosses of the West Archaeol. Cambrensis for 1857, p. 370. Ulster Journ. Arch. i, 236. lxxxvi. p. of Cornwall, Lond. 1856; an Eastern origin said to be exhibited by the British Christian architectural remains in Cornwall, their use may be traced in all early Continental Western art, and is only due to the original connection of all Western Christianity with the East 2. Architectural Evidence.—Mr. Fergusson makes the following remarks on the general Eastern character of early Christian Irish architecture:-'Ireland possesses what may properly be called a Celtic style of architecture, which is as interesting in itself as any of the minor local styles in any part of the world, and, so far as at present known, is quite peculiar to the island. None of the buildings of this style are large, though the ornaments of many of them are of great beauty and elegance. Their interest lies in their singularly local character and in their age, which probably extends from the fifth or sixth century to the time of the English conquest in 1176. They consist chiefly of churches and round towers3 No Irish church of this period, now remaining, is perhaps even 60 feet in length, and generally they are very much smaller, the most common dimensions being from 20 to 40 feet1. Increase of magnificence was sought more by extending the number than by augmenting the size. The favourite number for a complete ecclesiastical establishment was seven, as in Greece, this number being identical with that of the seven Apocalyptic Churches of Asia. Thus, there are seven at Glendalough, seven at Cashel, and the same sacred number is found 1 Journal of Brit. Archaeol. Assoc. vol. xxiii. pp. 221-230. ... * The Labarum has been found on sepulchral stones, as on the Frampton stone in Dorset, &c., and on an oval tin ornament, fourth century; Hübner, Æm., Inscript. Britan. p. 12, Nos. 31, 198, 217, 218, 219, 220, 228. For the Greek cross in early Italian art, see J. H. Parker's photographs, No. 442, in Early Irish Art, Kilkenny Archaeol. Soc. 1854, p. 297. 'The date of the existing round towers is much later. * Some of the oratories in fact are much smaller. St. Mollagga's oratory, Co. Cork, measures 10 ft. x 7 ft. 2 in.; St. Declan's at Ardmore, 13 ft. 8 in. x 8 ft. 4 in.; St. Molua's, Killaloe, 10 ft. 6 in. x 6 ft. 4 in.; St. Columb's, at Kells, 16 ft. 1 in. x 13 ft.; St. Kevin's, at Glendalough, 22 ft. 7 in. x 14 ft. 13 in., exclusive of the walls. R. Brash, Eccles. Architect. of Ireland, p. 8. The dimensions of churches are stated ib. p. 121. at several other places, and generally two or three, at least, are found grouped together. 'No church is known to have existed in Ireland before the Norman Conquest that can be called a basilica, none of them being divided into aisles either by stone or wooden pillars, or possessing an apse, and no circular church has yet been found; nothing in short that would lead us to believe that Ireland obtained her architecture direct from Rome; while everything, on the contrary, tends to confirm the belief of an intimate connection with the farther East, and that her early Christianity and religious forms were derived from Greece by some of the more southerly commercial routes which at that period seem to have abutted on Ireland. 'Both in Greece and Ireland the smallness of the churches is remarkable. They never were, in fact, basilicas for the assembly of large congregations of worshippers, but oratories, where the priest could celebrate the divine mysteries for the benefit of the laity. It is not only at Mount Athos, and other places in Europe, but also in Asia Minor, that we find the method of grouping a large number of small churches together, seven being the favourite number and one often attained1.' A little further on Mr. Fergusson alludes to the still older class of antiquities-'the circular domical dwellings found in the west of the island, constructed of loose stones in horizontal layers, approaching one another till they meet at the apex like the old so-called treasuries of the Greeks, or the domes of the Jains in India. Some words of Tertullian with reference to the Eastern sect of the Marcionites have been somewhat fancifully quoted as fitly describing these early Irish beehive-shaped buildings: Habent apes favos, habent et ecclesias Marcionitae,' &c. Similar Christian architectural remains have been found 1 Fergusson, J., Illustrated Handbook of Architecture, London, 1855, vol ii. p. 915. Ib. 925. in Cornwall (A.D. 250-450), and are described by Mr. Borlase in his 'Age of the Saints'.' In his Preface to the Sculptured Stones of Scotland Mr. Stuart quotes Dr. Wise's assertion that there is a striking similarity between the stone monuments of the East and those of Britain, and Mr. Chalmers' assertion that there are figures on some of the stones in Scotland identical with those on Gnostic gems3. 4 These and such like facts, without amounting to proof, are suggestive of Eastern origin or influence, more probably the latter. On the other hand, the explanation which has already been given of the existence of Greek crosses in Cornwall may be extended to all the other points of architectural similarity between the early Christian remains of Great Britain and Ireland and those of the East". Palaeographical Evidence. The palaeographical evidence is at first sight strongly in favour of an Eastern connection, though the tendency of recent writers and of fuller investigation has been to modify the extent of the connection, or even to deny it altogether. The distinctive style of ornamentation adopted or invented by native artists consisted of intricate designs formed 1. By the use of dots, generally in different coloured inks. 3. By the step-like angulated pattern. 5. By interlaced ribbons. 6. By interlaced zoomorphic patterns. 7. By various spiral patterns, which are by far the most characteristic of the whole. 8. By the formation of gigantic initial letters, sometimes occupying a whole page, which are filled up with geometrical 1 p. 30. ' p. iv. ' p. xiv. p. 48. * Haddan, Remains, p. 238. For an account and explanation of the mixture of Buddhist and Christian symbols on Scottish stones, see Proceedings of Royal Irish Acad. vii. 118. designs of interlaced work, convoluted serpentine figures, spiral ornaments, grotesque birds, insects, quadrupeds, &c.1 What is the origin of this style of Celtic art? A Roman origin is impossible, because not a single Italian MS. nor a single piece of Italian sculpture can be produced older than the ninth century having a close resemblance to those of this country. The illuminations in the Book of Kells find no exact parallel in Italy. They resemble Assyrian or Egyptian rather than Italian work. A Scandinavian origin, suggested by the existence of Runic inscriptions on stones found in various places, especially in the Isle of Man, is impossible, because all such stones are several centuries more recent than the oldest Celtic MSS., the writers of which had no intercourse with the inhabitants of Denmark or Norway. An Eastern origin is suggested by the similarity of much of the Celtic ornamentation to that found in early Syriac, Egyptian, Ethiopic, &c. MSS., by a resemblance in the delineation of birds and animals to Egyptian fresco painting, in the manner of drawing the wings, in the conventional representations of eagles, lions, calves, &c., in the swathed mummy-like figures of Christ. The theory of such an origin is facilitated by the early commercial intercourse which is known to have existed between this country and the East, and by the frequent expeditions recorded to have been made by early Christian pilgrims of the Celtic Church to the Holy Land, and by the immigration of foreign ecclesiastics 3. On the other hand, it is rendered doubtful by the fact that work resembling Byzantine work, and some features of Oriental ornamentation, are to be found in very early MSS. not only in the East, but also throughout Western Christendom. 'See the monogram of the Book of Kells, Gilbert, J. T., Nat. MSS. of Ireland, i. pl. vii; Westwood, J. O., Facsimiles, &c., p. iv. • See p. 56. * Westwood, J. O., Facsimiles, &c., plates xxvi, xxviii. ⚫ 'Professor Westwood said in his Palaeographia Sacra (1845, not paged): |