CELTIC CHURCH IN BRITAIN #11

 The Celtic Church in Britain #11

Monasteries

THE CELTIC CHURCH IN BRITAIN 

by Leslie Hardinge (1972)

  

MONASTERIES

CITIES OF REFUGE

     High priority must be given to the role played by the

monastery during the Celtic period. It was more vital than that

of an average community a thousand years later. Its functions 

and responsibilities were pervasive in the life of the people. The

laws of Ireland carefully defined the relationships which the

"tribe of the people" were to sustain to the "tribe of the church". 

The sanctuary which the monastery provided for offenders

in need was jealously guarded. The laws and customs which

supported the idea of protection were richly flavoured by

regulations taken from the Liber ex Lege Moisi. The Old 

Testament contained these provisions regarding asylum:

     Ye shall appoint unto you cities to be cities of refuge for

     you: that the slayer may flee thither, ... and the

     congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the

     revenger (Num. 35.10-12,25).

     The law tract Precincts laid down the Irish monastic concept

of the asylum which the Christian Church provided: "The church

protects sinners, so that they come out of it free or bond, as

they entered it, ... it shelters the trespassers ... so that fines are 

accepted from them where death was deserved ... And she

is exempt for entertaining and advising at all times." This

privilege of refuge was granted not only to the fugitive who

entered the sacred enclosure of the monastic settlement, but it

was also given by the patron saint himself to any who might place

himself under his protection. An illustration of this is the story of 

Curan and Columba whose sanctuary was violated and the young 

man Curan slain by Diarmid. In terrible indignation Columba

was represented as cursing the murderer. As a result a battle

ensued in which the northern prince Hugh O'Neill defeated and

slew Diarmid at Culdremhe.

     Adamnan has preserved a story of a young girl who fled to

Columba, when he was studying with German in Leinster, while

still a young man. Her pursuer, ignoring the holy man and the

young disciple Columba, slew the girl before them. "Then the old

man in great affliction, turning to Columba, said, 'For how long,

holy boy Columba, will God, the just judge, suffer this crime,

and our dishonour to go unavenged?" He then pronounced a

terrible curse on the murderer, who immediately fell dead before

them.

     A declaratory story was told of Diarmait's son Bresal, who

grabbed a cow from the nun Luchair of Kells "in the sanctuary".

His own father sentenced him to death for his crime. Bresal was

later restored to life by Becan, and all ended well after the

principle of asylum had been firmly underlined. 

     This concept not only afforded protection to persecuted and

afflicted Christians living among heathen peoples, it also worked

to enhance the prestige, power, and influence of the monastic

settlements themselves.

CHILDREN

     Children were often entrusted to the members of the various

Christian communities to be brought up in the faith, in imitation

of the way Samuel was "lent to the Lord", and to be educated as

useful members of society. The laws and penitentials contain

several regulations covering the relationship of the child to the

monastic school and the school to the child. The Old-Irish

Penitential gives rules governing "boys of ten years old". The

penitential of Cummean also deals with the sins of little boys.

Even infants and very young children were thrust upon the

monasteries. This is strong circumstantial evidence of the

presence of women in some monasteries, because it would seem 

to be highly improbable that men would tend the smallest babies.

Explaining St Paul's illustration of a "nurse cherishing her

children", the glossator remarked that "she makes every sound to

instruct her fosterling ... of us instructing fosterlings". Brigit, Ira, 

and Bee, Hilda and the daughters of King Cualann, were all 

educators of the smallest children.

     Cadoc received Elli as his foster-son when he was only a

little boy of three, and "loved him above the love of father and

mother". Colman, chief of Leinster, sent his baby son to be

reared by Coemgen. Rich and poor mingled freely. They all lived

in huts or in the outlying community. After their training had

been completed, the young people either continued in the

settlement or went out into the "tribe of the people" to fend for

themselves. The parents of the foster children were required by

law to provide clothes and payments to those who looked after

them. But there was also "fostering for affection" in which

relationship the foster parent supplied all the child's needs. If

the father failed to offer his son to the Church, he was obliged

to pay all the expenses of his education. If the son who had been

pledged to the Church by a pious father later decided to leave

its service, the parent was under obligation to pay only two-thirds 

of the cost and the Christian settlement made up the rest. Parents 

were encouraged to present their boys for education, and were 

provided with lists of the fees, just as in the Brehon schools.

MINISTER SUPPORT

     In commenting on the principle which the apostle Paul laid

down for Timothy: "For the Scripture saith, 'Thou shalt not

muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn', and, 'The labourer is

worthy of his reward'", the Old-Irish glossator remarked: "This

is an example from the Old Law to confirm the principle that it

is right to supply food and clothing to the clergy and students."

     The implication seems to be that the students made

contributions of labour to the running of the ecclesiastical

seminaries, and, in consequence, should be supported.

WAYFARER, PAUPER, WIDOW, ORPHAN

     The care of the wayfarer and pauper, the widow and orphan,

was regarded as a most important part of the practice of the

Celtic Christian. The Liber ex Lege Moisi provided for the

stranger, the foreigner, and the homeless, and the Celt obeyed.

No call for help was ever denied. Even to those from abroad who

desired an education, the Irish monasteries provided free board,

lodgings, books, and tuition. The ancient laws condemned

inhospitality as a crime, while the penitentials inveighed against 

it as a sin.

     Lasair gave food away even during a famine so that he might

escape from the insults and reproaches of the poet-band. But the

Celt was hospitable because he loved people. His feelings may

well be crystalized in these lines:

     0 king of Stars!

     Whether my house be dark or bright, 

     Never shall it be closed against any one, 

     Lest Christ close his house against me.

     If there be a guest in your house 

     And you conceal aught from him,

     'Tis not the guest that will be without it, 

     But Jesus, Mary's Son.

     Brigit is represented as making a feast for Jesus in her

heart. Finnian of Clonard had 3000 whom he supported in his

settlement. Cadoc's generous hospitality has already been noted.

The founder or holy man to whom the original grant of land had

been made was called the patron saint of the monastery or

Christian community. The importance of his position can hardly be

exaggerated. A gloss of the law tract "Succession" thus eulogized

his person and office. He is one 24 who is the noblest; who is

the highest; who is the wealthiest; the shrewdest; the wisest;

who is popular as to compurgation; who is most powerful to sue;

the most firm to sue for profits and losses. And: every body

defends its members, if a goodly body, well-deeded, wel-moralled,

affluent, capable. The body of each is his tribe. There is no body 

without a head.

THE LEADERS

     That this description applies with equal force to the leader

of "the tribe of the church" is corroborated by the Cain Aigillne.

     The leader of the Christian settlement originally possessed

the land, buildings, and the right of succession, which depended

upon him and the tribe to which he belonged. Not only in Ireland

but also in Wales abbatal tenancy was hereditary. This tribal and

hereditary occupancy was not solely of Celtic origin among Celtic

Christians, it also had its authorization in the Liber ex Lege

Moisi. Priests were chosen only from the tribe of Levi, and

especially from the family of Aaron, and succeeded their fathers

to holy office, and also to the possession of the sacred cities

with their suburbs. This certainly looks like the authority for

the Celtic Christians to continue the hereditary succession of

druid and Brehon in their own Christian communities. But while

hereditary laws applied, this did not preclude the aspiring

Brehon's fitting himself for his task through study. The

Christianized laws provided for almost every eventuality to

ensure that a suitable successor be selected for the leadership

of each community.

     The simplest application of this regulation of hereditary

succession was to a suitable son of the original founder-abbot,

as is evidenced by this couplet from the law tracts:

The successor should be 

The son of the abbot in the pleasant church 

A fact established by sense.

     This successor was called a "coarb". Later hagiographers

went to great lengths to establish him as the "heir" of the

founders.

     This enabled all the wealth and prestige of the monastery to

remain in the property of the heir. After the Viking period he

was called the "erenach" or airchinnech. Giraldus Cambrensis

noted that "the sons, after the deaths of their fathers, succeeded 

to the ecclesiastical benefice, not by election, but by hereditary 

right".

     Should the abbot have no son, or be a "virgin abbot", a

suitable person was to be chosen from "the tribe of the patron

saint who shall succeed to the church as long as there shall be a

person fit to be an abbot of the said tribe of the patron saint;

even though there should be but a psalm-singer of them, it is he

that will obtain the abbacy". Coemgen "ordained that the erenagh

in his church should be habitually of the children and posterity

of Dimma". But should neither the son of the abbot nor a suitable

person from the tribe of the saint be forthcoming, the law

provided for a third source:

     Whenever there is not one of that tribe fit to be an abbot,

     it [the abbacy] is to be given to the tribe to whom the land

     belongs, until a person fit to be an abbot of the tribe of

     the patron saint, shall be qualified; and when he is, it

     [the abbacy] is to be given to him, if he be better than the

     abbot of the tribe to whom the land belongs, and who has

     taken it. If he [the former] is not better, it is only in

     his turn he shall succeed.

     It occasionally happened that junior members of "the tribe

of the church" obtained grants of land on their own behalf in the

neighbourhood, and set up subsidiary communities of Christian

believers. These were regarded as extensions of the original

church or monastery. On some occasions a foster-son of the Church

settled with a few companions at a little distance, or perhaps

even across the sea. All these ancillary houses were regarded as

being legally bound to the original settlement of the patron

saint and were under the jurisdiction of his "heirs". The law

provided that:

     If a person fit to be an abbot has not come of the tribe of

     the patron saint, or of the tribe to whom the land belongs,

     the abbacy is to be given to one of the fine-manach class

     until a person fit to be an abbot, of the tribe of the

     patron saint, or of the tribe to whom the land belongs,

     should be qualified; and when there is such a person, the

     abbacy is to be given to him in case he is better.

     The term fine-manach grade described an inferior member of

the "tribe of the church" who was a tenant on the ecclesiastical

lands; or it might also indicate members of the Church who had

established places for themselves, or it might even include the

"people who give the church valuable goods". The law took care 

of all eventualities thus:

     If a person fit to be an abbot has not come of the tribe of

     the patron saint, or of the tribe of the grantor of the

     land, or of the manach class, the "anoint" church shall

     receive it, in the fourth place; a dalta church shall

     receive it in the fifth place; a compairche church shall

     obtain it in the sixth place; a neighbouring till church

     shall obtain it in the seventh place.

     The "anoint" church was the one in which the patron saint

had been educated, or in which he had been buried. The dalta

church was one established by a foster-son or pupil in the

monastic settlement. A compairche church was one under the

jurisdiction of the patron saint, but situated at some distance.

A neighbouring church was one which, though not under the

authority of the patron saint, was simply located at a not too

great distance from it.

     Should all these sources prove unavailing, the monks were to

select a suitable person from among the "pilgrims" who had

sought sanctuary or hospitality among them, or even a responsible

layman might temporarily rule until he found some one more

suitable. This practice gave rise to many anomalies through the

centuries. The coarbs were not always bishops nor even priests.

     In Kildare they were always females. There is also a record

of a female coarb of St Patrick at Armagh. The one who inherited

the rights of the patron saint was a chieftain of considerable

power in the ecclesiastical community. The Annals contain a

nearly complete list of the abbots or coarbs, but do not indicate

successive bishops, who were more often than not in subjection to

the coarb-abbot, and who did not succeed one another. The names

in the Annals of the successors of Patrick are often called abbots, 

while some are called bishops as well as abbots, and others are 

styled simply bishops, and still others merely coarbs of St Patrick. 

Nothing in this last title shows whether he was a bishop or not. 

It is therefore well nigh impossible to trace episcopal succession 

in Armagh. The coarbs of Patrick might be bishop, priest, layman, 

or even a woman. In the eleventh century this anomalous situation 

still existed in Ireland. Bernard wrote that:

     There had been introduced by the diabolical ambition of

     certain people of rank a scandalous usage whereby the Holy

     See [Armagh] came to be obtained by heritary succession. For

     they would allow no person to be promoted to the bishoprick

     except such as were of their own tribe and family. Nor was

     it for any short period that this succession had continued,

     nearly fifteen generations having been already exhausted in

     this course of iniquity.

     Before the time of Celsus eight of these coarbs had been

married men. After Malachy had been elected to office by the

Roman party, he strove to bring Armagh and its succession into

line with canonical practice.

MEN, WOMEN, FAMILIES

     The composition of the early Celtic monastic household may

be discovered from the sources. The Catalogue of the Saints of

Ireland recorded that the original Christians, who were drawn to

the faith by Patrick and his successors, were "all bishops, ...

founders of churches ... They rejected not the services and

society of women, because, founded on the rock Christ, they

feared not the blast of temptation. This order of saints

continued for four reigns, that is, to 5. T. Olden long ago

strove to establish that this introduction of women into monastic

households was as consorts or spiritual wives. It would seem

less far-fetched to suggest that at the initial stage celibacy

was not enforced. Communities of men and women living together 

as families were more likely in vogue. S. H. Sayce pointed this out

when he wrote: "As in Egypt so in the Celtic Church the

monasterium or collegium was an assemblage of huts in which the

monks, both cleric and lay, lived with their wives and families."

     In the Irish laws provisions covering the various members of

the monastic family are found. They recognized "virgin" and

married clerics of all grades, even lay recluses:

     There is a virgin bishop ... the virgin priest ... a bishop

     of one wife ... a virgin clerical student ... a clerical

     student of one wife ... a lay recluse ... of virginity ...

     lay recluses who are without virginity, if they be beloved

     of God, and their works great, if their miracles are as

     numerous, or if they are more numerous, in the same way that

     Peter and Paul were to John, and in the same way Anthony and

     Martin were.

     So there were evidently in Irish ecclesiastical organizations

"virgin bishops", "virgin priests", "virgin abbots", and "virgin

clerical students", besides "virgin lay recluses". There were

also apparently married bishops, priests, abbots, clerical

students, and lay recluses. A comparison of the status enjoyed by

the "virgin" and married persons shows that virginity was held to

be superior. But being the "husband of one wife" did not debar a

man from any clerical office, not even that of recluse. In fact

the law goes out of its way to protect from censure or contempt

"lay recluses who are without virginity if they be beloved of

God". And so the writers of the "Lives" noted that the steward of

Cadoc had a daughter's, while Cadoc himself had a "son-in-law",

and his father a "monastery". The laws deplored "the son of a

religious without an hour for his order".

THE OLD AND INFIRM

     The old and infirm often found shelter in the Christian

settlements. Even kings and queens entered these communities to

gain peace in their declining years. The old woman of Beare, on

the other hand, finding herself left behind by the march of life,

sadly lamented her change of fortune:

     I had my day with kings!

     We drank the brimming mead, the ruddy wine,

     Where now I drink whey-water; for company more fine 

     Than shrivelled hags, hag though I am, I pine.

MONASTIC FAMILY

     The biographers of the saints had recorded the traditional

make-up of Patrick's monastic "family":

     The family of Patrick of the prayers, who had good Latin, I

     remember; no feeble court (were they], their order, and

     their names.

     Sechnall, his bishop without fault; 

     Mochta after him his priest;

     Bishop Erc his sweet-spoken judge; his champion, 

     Bishop Maccaerthinn; 

     Benen, his psalmist; 

     Coemhan, his chamberlain; 

     Sinell his bell-ringer, 

     Aitchen his true

     cook; 

     The priest Mescan, without evil, his friend and his

     brewer; 

     The priest Bescna, sweet his verses, the chaplain of

     the son of Alprann. His three smiths, "expert at shaping, 

     Macecht, Laebhan, and Fortchern.

     His three artificers, of great endowment, Aesbuite, Tairill,

     and Tasach.

     His three embroiderers, not despicable, Lupaid, Erca, and

     Cruimthiris.

     Odhran, his charioteer, without blemish, 

     Rodan, son of Braga, his shepherd.

     Ippis, Tigris, and Erca, and Liamhain, with Eibeachta:

     

     For them Patrick excelled in wonders, for them he was truly

     miraculous.

     Carniuch was the priest that baptized him; German his tutor,

     without blemish.

     The priest Manach, of great endowment, was his man for

     supplying wood.

     His sister's son was Banban, of fame; 

     Martin his mother's brother. Most sapient was the youth Mochonnoc, his

     hospitaller; Cribri and Larsa, of mantles, beautiful

     daughters of Gleaghrann.

     Macraith the wise, and Erc, he prophesied in his three

     wills.

     Brogan, the scribe of his school; the priest Logha, his

     helmsman, It is not a thing unsung, and Machui his true

     foster-son.

     Good the man whose great family they were, to whom God gave

     a crozier without sorrow.

     Chiefs with whom the bells are heard, a good family was the

     family of Patrick.

     May the Trinity, which is powerful over all, distribute to

     us the boon of great love;

     The King who, moved by soft Latin, redeemed by Patrick's

     prayer.

     If this list is taken as even partially historical as to the

various categories of helpers in a Celtic monastery of the time

of its writer, possibly the eighth century, the picture emerges

of a well-organized Christian "city" consisting of many workers,

and sharing the products of their skill with each other.

     The chief was the abbot, who had under him a vice-abbot. The

religious duties, conducting services and ordaining clergy, were

carried out by the bishop or bishops. Then there were seniors,

the aged members of the society, who were consulted in matters of

importance. The rank and file of the city consisted of farmers

who tended the fields and orchards, the flocks and herds;

carpenters who kept the houses in repair or built new ones;

smiths who made bells and other objects of iron; jewellers who

fashioned brooches, buckles, and decorative cases for books or

the furnishings for the Communion service, and croziers; masons

who fabricated stone altars or constructed any stone building

that might be made. The baker prepared bread and other delicacies

with flour provided by the miller. The tanner took care of the

skins of animals killed for food, and turned them into leather

for sandals, cloaks, or writing materials, satchels and bags for

books and other uses. The embroideresses prepared the more

decorative clothes for the abbot and other clerics, and the

cloths for the altars, out of materials prepared by carders,

spinners, and weavers. At the gate the porter functioned, with

the help of the guard or the strong man, called the champion,

while the gardener provided fruit and vegetables and herbs for

the cooks in the kitchen; and the cellarer or steward was

responsible for the meal services. On the islands fishermen

procured food from the sea. The guestmaster dispensed

hospitality, while nurses took care of the fosterchildren and the

sick and infirm. Teachers instructed in the schools, and scribes

prepared books in the scriptoria, which the librarians carefully

tended. Everyone had his work to do. Even when a British king

left his realm and came to Ireland on a pilgrimage in order to

gain heaven, "he gave himself to manual labour like any monk

aserving God". But, on the other hand, and typical of Celtic

selfcontradiction, Finan protested to Mochuda: "It is a wretched

thing to make your monks into brute beasts; for it were better to

have oxen for ploughing and draught, than to put such torture on

the disciples of God." To which Mochuda replied with a chuckle,

"Well, O Cleric, 'tis the sweat of his own tonsure that heals

every one."

SIZE OF MONASTIC CITY

The size of the monastic "city" varied considerably. Finnian of

Clonard is said to have ruled over no fewer than three thousand

saints, while at the other end of the scale there are records

of communities of only a dozen men. Bearing in mind the

comparatively small population of the British Isles, and the

recurrent charge that Celtic Christians were few in number, the

average settlement could hardly have been very large, consisting

possibly of a few score persons.

UNIVERSAL LAWS

     The individuality, which is characteristic of Celtic

philosophy of life, made the formulation of rules which were

universally acceptable in all communities impossible. The first

authenticated list of regulations which has survived was framed

by Columbanus.

     He left Ireland and established various communities on the

Continent. Here his regulae proved so severe that none but the

hardiest and most determined were able to live by them. When

Columbanus was banished from Gaul, he was very loth to return

home. Could a reason for this be that his way of living was not

the usual Celtic way of laissez-faire? It has been taken for

granted, without enough evidence, that the rules of Columbanus

were typical of the programme of the usual Irish monastic house.

There were possibly communities which lived in a manner suggested

by the rules of Columbanus, but they would represent one phase

only of many different kinds of Celtic monachism.

     Columba's "rules", like other Celtic monastic regular, were

of a much later date than Columba. They were fathered on earlier

saints to give them some measure of antiquity and authority. Even

at the late date when these rules were devised there were still

great differences between them. Each monastery went its own way.

This divergence in practice is humorously underlined by the

discussion between two monastic heads on the relative merits of

abstinence and wine drinking. One said, in effect, My disciples

are better than yours. They do not drink! To which the other

retorted, Mine will get to heaven anyway.

(WE AGAIN MUST REMEMBER THAT by this time many truths had been

lost.....going to heaven had come in, probably from the Roman

church. The truth is heaven is coming to us, to this earth, as I

prove in many studies on mywebsite - Keith Hunt)

DOUBLE MONASTERIES

BUT ROME DID NOT LIKE IT

     Celtic Christians permitted "double monasteries",

settlements in which both men and women lived in the same 

or in adjacent buildings, and generally were presided over by 

a woman.

      Palladius, in the opening years of the fifth century, described

how the virgin Asella ruled over many religious persons,

including husbands and wives, in a building in Rome, and taught

them to live as monks and ascetics while still in their own

homes. Martin admitted a husband and wife to his community 

at Marmoutier, and, as has been noted, a couple lived in the

monastery at Lerins. Double monasteries were founded in Gaul 

and also in Britain, and continued in existence for centuries.

The Council of Agade (506) on the Mediterranean, at which 

Caesar of Arles was probably present, prohibited the building of

nunneries near abbeys. justinian (529) forbade all who dwelt in

monasteries with nuns even to converse with them. Double

monasteries in England were permitted but deprecated by Theodore,

who none the less ruled that "it is not permissible for men to have 

monastic women, nor women, men; nevertheless, we shall not

overthrow that which is the custom in this region". He evidently

felt that double monasteries were too strongly entrenched to be

overthrown immediately. Hilda ruled over what was perhaps the

most famous double monastery of her day at Whitby. Cogitosus'

"Life of Brigit" professed to describe a sixth-century monastery

at Kildare:

     The number of the faithful of both sexes increasing, the

     church was enlarged, having within, three oratories, large,

     and separated by partitions of planks, under one roof of the

     greater house, wherein one partition extended along the

     breadth in the eastern part of the church, from the one

     party wall to the other, which partition has at its

     extremities two doors; through the one in the right side the

     chief prelate enters the sanctuary, accompanied by his

     regular school and the ministrants of the altar; through the

     other, the abbess and nuns, when they communicate. Another

     partition divides the pavement of the house into two equal

     parts. There are two main doors-one for men, one for the

     women.

 

     Brigit invited a holy man from his solitary life to join her

in governing her settlement in episcopal dignity. She did not

hesitate to call her men-servants to dine with her. Ira (+ 569) 

and Kieran (+ 520) also associated men with their settlements, 

while Mochuda (+ 637) was beloved of thirty girls who became 

nuns. Evidently the hagiographers had no doubt that men and 

women lived together in the same establishments, and their readers 

appear to have taken this state of affairs for granted.

     The same story may be repeated for double monasteries in

England. Aebbe was abbess of Coldingham. On one occasion "one 

of the brethren of the same monastery" spied on Cuthbert's vigils as

the holy man was standing all night in the sea and singing psalms, 

and noted that otters dried and warmed the saint's feet. Verca was 

abbess of a monastery at the mouth of the Tyne. She had a "priest 

of the same monastery" living with the sisters," as did Aelfflaed 

in her mixed monastery. And so the evidence might be increased 

to point to the stage of monastic practice wherein men and women 

lived in the same establishment. This was transitional, between 

communities of families and the final separation between the sexes. 

An insight into the actual practice of this kind of monachism is 

given by this Old-Irish story of Laisran the anchorite of 

Clonmacnoise. Clerical students used to take turns at inviting him 

to their homes for entertainment:

     One night a certain clerical student took him to his house.

     He put a mantle under him. Laisran slept on his mantle. He

     sees a carnal vision, and he had not seen it from his birth

     till that night. He rises then. He began to weep and lament

     (?). "Woe to me ..." saith he. Then he began to pray, and

     recited the three fifties in prayer. Then a numbness came

     upon his lips. Then came an angel to him and said, "Be not

     sorrowful, what you have seen this night you have never seen

     before, and what caused even this is because the mantle on

     which thou hast slept (?) is a mantle which has not been

     washed since the married couple had it. A demon has ... it

     then because it has not been washed, for every garment that

     is taken from ... folk, a demon accompanies it as long as it

     is not washed.

     This anecdote reveals curious facts, evidently accepted by

its writer and its intended audience. The cloak which the

clerical student lent the anchorite had been slept in by "the

married couple," obviously the student and his wife. While the

hagiographer was intent on showing the ascetic prowess of Laisran

he unconsciously recorded the fact that married couples lived in

the same monastic settlement side by side with the most rigid

celibate.

     Because of the presence of such records in the sources the

role of women in Celtic monastic practice is difficult to define.

Confusion and prejudice often fog the discussion of the evidence

which exists. The task of the historian is complicated because

stories have been devised as propaganda for celibacy. In the Old

Testament women occupied positions of honour. They could even

become prophetesses. Children were regarded as guarantees of

God's blessing. When the Christian Church began, the role of

women was simple and obvious. But with the rise of the ascetic

movement attitudes towards marriage gradually changed. What 

were those who were already married to do about the religio-social

pressures towards celibacy? Some decided to maintain their family

existence for the sake of the children, but to live as brother and sister. 

Single men determined to maintain a woman merely as a housekeeper. 

But it soon became apparent that "spiritual wifehood" of whatever 

kind was impracticable. In the end separate establishments for the 

unmarried, both men and women, were founded. Like the Western 

Church in general Celtic Christians seem to have passed through 

the stages of development between 450 and 1150.

(THE ROMAN CHURCH WAS TAKING OVER AND 

INFLUENCING THE CELTIC CHURCH - Keith Hunt)

     For Celtic hagiographers of the tenth and later centuries,

who probably knew little of the history and evolution of clerical

celibacy, the thought that saints of previous ages had been

married men with families appeared extremely anomalous. They

invented stories of these early Christians as explanations. Two

such fictitious anecdotes follow, quoted though long to illustrate 

this tendency. The point of the first narrative, written probably 

early in the ninth century, was that Scothin lived with the ladies 

concerned merely as a "brother":

     Now two maidens with pointed breasts used to lie with him

     every night that the battle with the Devil might be the

     greater for him. And it was proposed to accuse him on that

     account. So Brenainn came to test him, and Scothin said:

     "Let the cleric lie in my bed tonight", saith he. So when he

     reached the hour of resting the girls came into the house

     wherein was Brenainn, with their lapfuls of glowing embers

     in their chasubles; and the fire burnt them not, and they

     spill [the embers] in front of Brenainn, and go into the bed

     with him. "What is this?" asks Brenainn. "Thus is it is that

     we do every night", say the girls. They lie down with

     Brenainn, and nowise could he sleep for longing. "That is

     imperfect, O cleric," say the girls, "he who is here every

     night feels nothing at all. Why goest thou not, O cleric,

     into the tub [of cold water] if it be easier for thee? 'Tis

     often that the cleric, even Scothin, visits it." "Well,"

     says Brenainn, "it is wrong for us to make this test, for he

     is better than we are.

     Thereafter they make their union and their covenant, and

     they part feliciter.

     A similar story is told of Ciaran. He was once on his way to

the mill to seek for oats:

     Then comes the daughter of the master of the mill, and she

     was seeking Ciaran, and he found favour in her eyes, for his

     form was more beautiful than that of anyone of his own age.

     "That is most hard for thee", said Ciaran. "Is it not this

     whereof thou shouldst take heed - the perishableness of the

     world, and Doomsday, and the pains of hell, in order to

     obtain them?" When the girl had gone home, she tells those

     tidings to her father and to her mother. These came and

     offered the girl to Ciaran. "If she offers her maidenhood to

     God," said Ciaran, "and if she serves him, I will be at

     union with her." So the girl offered her maidenhood to

     God and to Ciaran, and all her household their continual

     service, and the permanent ownership of them to Ciaran, from

     that time forward.

     Dare's daughter loved Benen. She was punished and died, 

but after the performance of a miracle she was restored and "she

loved him spiritually. She is Ercnat." Of another liaison between

Benen and Cruimtheris the record goes: "Benen used to carry her

ration to her every night from Patrick." Cruimtheris was one of

the seamstresses in Patrick's familia. The very fact that a cleric 

might visit a woman every night suggests a state of affairs which 

would certainly be highly suspect in later ages of monastic 

development. In the traditional story of later date concerning 

Columba's prowess light is shed on the presence of  men and 

women in a community over which he presided:

     so long as the Devil heard Columba's voice at celebration he

     durst not stir rill Columba completed celebration, and till

     the news were asked of him afterwards by Columba. And it 

     was a halter for the Devil who dwelt with a student at Armagh,

     who used to go there to another cleric's wife, i.e. when

     celebration and offering were made he used to visit her,

     until Columba once upon a time perceived the Devil beckoning

     to the student, and Columba forbade the student to go forth.

     So Columba's celebration was a halter to the Devil.

     This narrative was not directed against the clerical student

and his wife, but was told as a warning against the irregularity

of still another clerical student who visited a married woman.

There evidently arose no question about regular marriage among

clerics, but there was a feeling against affairs with married

women.

     The later hagiographers appear to have taken it for granted

that women at one time lived on Iona, for "Erenat a virginal nun,

... was cook and robe-maker to Columcille". In another connection

the story goes that Columba "went round the graveyard in Iona and

he saw an old woman cutting nettles to make broth thereof". He

then decided that his cook should make him "nettle broth without

butter or milk" daily. Stories like these might be multiplied.

They were evidently devised to suggest that the old Celtic saints, 

who according to persistent records were married, were in fact living 

celibate lives in spite of their relationship with women. A tenth-century 

poem puts the cruder narratives into poetic form:

Crinog, melodious is your song.

Though young no more you are still bashful.

We two grew up together in Niall's northern land, 

When we used to sleep together in tranquil slumber.

That was my age when you slept with me, 

A peerless lady of pleasant wisdom:

A pure-hearted youth, lovely without a flaw, 

A gentle boy of seven sweet years.

We lived in the great world of Banva, 

Without sullying soul or body,

My flashing eye full of love for you,

Like a poor innocent untempted by evil....

Since then you have slept with four men after me, 

Without folly or falling away:

I know, I hear it on all sides,

You are pure, without sin from man.

At last, after weary wanderings, 

You have come to me again,

Darkness of age has settled on your face: 

Sinless your life draws near its end.

You are still dear to me, faultless one,

You shall have welcome from me without stint: 

You will not let us be drowned in torment:

We will earnestly practise devotion with you....

Then may God grant us peace and happiness! 

May the countenance of the King

Shine brightly upon us

When we leave behind us our withered bodies.

     After Mel had been accused of misdemeanours and had finally

been exonerated by Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland was reputed to

have ruled: "A monk and a virgin, the one from one place, the

other from another, shall not dwell together in the same inn, nor

travel in the same carriage from village to village, nor

continually hold conversation with each other." Olden thought 

that these stories represented the actual practice of having women 

in their lodgings as consorts. This practice had been condemned by 

the Council of Nicaea (325), in its third canon. While it is possible 

that this state of things went on in some Celtic settlements, it would 

appear much more likely that these later stories were told as propaganda 

for celibacy, and to try to explain the condition of married monks and 

priests and bishops in earlier times. The evidence that marriage was 

openly practised by these Christians appears to be overwhelming.

(AH INDEED ROME WAS POURING OUT ITS IMMORAL 

TEACHING THAT PRIESTS ETC. SHOULD BE NOT 

MARRIED BUT SHOULD BE SINGLE - Keith Hunt)

WOMEN MINISTERS

The question whether or not women fulfilled any clerical

functions in the Celtic Church is an interesting one. When Theo-

lore set about regularizing the practices of the Christians, the

question of the status of women in England was one with which he

dealt:

     It is permissible for women, that is, the handmaidens of

     Christ, to read the lections and to perform the ministries

     which appertain to the confession of the sacred altar,

     except those which are the special functions of priests and

     deacons. Women shall not cover the altar with the corporal

     nor place on the altar the offerings, nor the cup, nor stand

     among ordained men in the Church, not sit at a feast among

     priests.

     According to the canons it is the function of the bishops

and priests to prescribe penance. No woman may adjudge penance

for anyone, since in the canons no one may do this except the

priests alone.

     Women may receive the host under a black veil, as Basil

decided. According to the Greeks a woman can make offerings 

[facere oblationes], but not according to the Romans.

     It would seem that these canons were designed to meet what

Theodore considered abuses among the Celtic Christians whom he

encountered.

     There is a reference to the consecration of Brigit as a

bishop. On one occasion a discussion took place:

     "Why have the nuns come?" asked Bishop Mel. "To have the

     orders of penitence conferred on Brigit", says Mac Caille.

     Thereafter the orders were read out over Brigit, and bishop

     Mel bestowed episcopal order upon her, it is then that Mac

     Caille set a veil on [her] head. Hence Brigit's successor is

     entitled to have episcopal orders conferred upon her.

     There is another reference to this. Nadfraech, of the men of

Tuibhi, was Brigit's lector and her preacher, "for, she said,

after she had received orders from Bishop Mel, that she would not

take food without being previously preached unto". These

comminatory stories were probably told to establish the prestige

of the successors of Brigit's monastic holdings at a later date.

They point to the fact that their readers were very credulous, or

that in some few communities women were ordained to clerical, or

even to episcopal, functions in the Irish segment of the Celtic

Church.

(AGAIN TRUTH AND FALSE IDEAS WERE CREEPING 

IN HERE AND THERE INTO THE CELTIC CHURCH. 

I have uploaded Dr.Sammuele Bacchiocchi's book "The Role 

of Women in the Church" for an in-depth study on the

subject of women being "ordained" to the ministry 

- Keith Hunt) 

EDUCATION

     Samuel Johnson wrote to Charles O'Connor to the effect that

"the ages which deserve an exact inquiry are those times (for

such they were) when Ireland was the school of the West, the

quiet habitation of sanctity and literature". From the days of

Bede, and for two centuries after, the Irish educational system

was the attraction which drew multitudes to study in that island.

The purpose of Celtic education was twofold. It sought to train

clerics and to educate the lay people. Attendance at school was

not compulsory, but the people were urged to send their children.

Visitors from abroad were welcome. Irish schools influenced

England, Scotland, and the Continent, and Irish teachers were

among the most highly respected educators in the court of

Charlemagne. The curriculum, while including some secular

studies, was mainly religious. "Comgal took Mochua with him to

Bangor, where he read the canon of the Old Law and the New

Testament, and the ecclesiastical order." The "Lives" speak

exclusively of religious texts, the Scriptures, particularly the

Psalms, and monastic rules. L. Gougaud listed works which had

been noted in monastic libraries founded by Celts on the

Continent: Gospel books, psalters, hymn books, liturgical works,

poems, rules, penitentials, martyrologies, some patristic

writings, commentaries on the Gospels and Epistles and Psalms,

annals, and church histories. M. Esposito noted that "as far as

our evidence goes, the Latin literature current in Ireland at the

end of the sixth century was biblical and ecclesiastical, not

classical". Perhaps this is going a little too far, for Jonas

recorded that Columbanus spent "much labour on grammar, rhetoric,

geometry and the Holy Scriptures", and became "distinguished

among his countrymen for his unusual piety and knowledge of the

Holy Scriptures".

     A legend is told of Cummine, who was once asked what he

would like most in his church. "I should like it full of books",

he said, "for them to go to students, and to sow God's word in

the ears of every one, [so as] to bring him to heaven out of the

track of the Devil." In the "Lives" books are often associated

with the saints. On the day of his death Columba was depicted as

trans-scribing a book.

     Besides religious studies it would seem most likely, because

of the excellent products which have survived, that grammar,

poetry, art, and illumination, art metal work, mathematics,

geometry and astronomy were also considered. There must have 

been some five divisions: vernacular studies, Irish legends, grammar,

poetry, and history; in Christian studies, theology placed

paramount emphasis upon the Bible; perhaps a slight consideration

of classical studies or what ever ancient authors might be

obtainable; aesthetic studies of art, poetry, and music; and

scientific studies, geography and astronomy and mathematics, 

all received attention.

EDUCATION IN THE OPEN

     Because of the smallness of the buildings instruction would

most likely be given in the open air, as far as possible. Small

groups of students would learn from one teacher, and then move on

to another. The age at which children commenced their education

was seven. A pleasant atmosphere probably reigned to give rise

to the Old-Irish comment: "It is the custom of good teachers to

praise the understanding of their pupils that they may love what

they hear." That oral teaching methods were used is also

suggested by the sources. The earliest textbooks for teaching

the alphabet were seemingly made up of simple passages from the

Scriptures, for we read of saints reading the alphabet when they

were actually studying the Bible. Columba, so the legend goes,

ate the cake on which the alphabet had been written, the Bible

being the bread of life, and so learned it all at once!

     There must have been an extensive vernacular study. The glosses

to the Epistles of St Paul, the Psalms, and parts of the Gospels,

were in Old-Irish. The scribe would hardly have written in

Old-Irish if he planned to preach in Latin. Adamnan told of the

singing of Irish hymns in honour of Columba as though this were 

a regular practice. The "Amra Choluimb Chille" is probably a

ninth-century edition of a seventh-century text written in

Old-Irish. The "Vita Tripartita" is the earliest hagiographical

work in the Irish Church. E. MacNeill felt that it was written in

Irish with a mixture of Latin at the latest early in the eighth

century. The "Life of Cuana" contains a statement to the effect

that a blessing is invoked on the head of the scribe who

translated this biography from Irish into Latin. It would

appear, therefore, that there must have been a study of the

vernacular as well as of Latin in the Irish monastic schools.

THE SCRIPTORIUM

     One of the most important and far-reaching of the activities

of the Celtic monastery was the work carried out in the

scriptorium.

     This was attached to the school in which the pupils were

taught. Before the invention of vellum the ancient Celtic

scribes evidently used wooden slats covered with wax. These

were carried in leather cases for protection, and a sharp stylus

was used for writing on them. A picture of conditions in which

this work was sometimes carried on is pleasantly revealed in the

story of Ciaran of Clonmacnoise and the tame fox which carried

his psalter. While Ciaran taught, the fox would sit "humbly

attending the lesson till the writing on wax came to an end. And

he then would take it with him to Ciaran. But once the natural

malice broke through the fox, and he began to eat his book, for

he was greedy about the leather bands that were about it on the

outside." Skins were prepared and later made into vellum. Now

the scribe could gloat over his "white book", as he used quill

pens while he supported the manuscript on his knees or on a desk

of some kind. Books were often borrowed to be transcribed, and

the story of Columba's battle as a result of copying without

permission illustrates how jealously these manuscripts were

guarded. The ink was made of carbon, lamp-black, or fish bone

black, or the "green skinned holly" juice. The quills were from

geese, swans, crows, and other large birds.

WORK OF THE SCRIBE

     The work of the scribe was an honoured one. The deaths of

sixtyone scribes before 900 are noted, and forty of them lie

between 700 and 800. They were highly skilled artists and held a

respected position. Abbots and bishops also often filled the role

of scribe. But these scribes could also be very human and down to

earth. E. Hull has collected some personal expressions of the

feelings of Irish scribes recorded in the Lebhar Breac:

     I am weary today from head to foot!

     Twenty days from today to Easter Monday, 

     and I am cold and tired without fire or shelter.

     I shall remember, O Christ, that I am writing to thee, 

     because I am fatigued today. 

     It is now Sunday evening.

(AGAIN WE SEE THAT THE CHURCH OF ROME  

HAD GREAT INFLUENCE ON THE CELTIC CHURCH 

BY THIS TIME, AS THEY WERE NOW OBSERVING 

EASTER - Keith Hunt)

     An unnamed scribe wrote a note to his companion: "Ochone,

dost thou still serve for ink? I am Cormac, son of Cosnamach,

trying it at Dun Daigre, the place of the writing, and I am

afraid we have got too much of the mischief in this ink.

     And yet another scribe recorded his sentiments thus: "A

prayer for the students; and it is a hard little story, and do

not reproach me concerning the letters, and the ink is bad, 

and the parchment scanty, and the day is dark."

     It was evidently just one of those days when nothing would

come out right. In still another context a young scribe boasted:

"Had I wished, I could have written the whole commentary like

this!" But the happiness of the scribe is also reflected in the

poems which were written from time to time. Here is a typical

one:

     Over my head the woodland wall Rises; 

     the ousel sings to me.

     Above my booklet lined for words 

     The woodland birds shake out their glee. 

     There's the blithe cuckoo chanting clear 

     In mantle grey from bough to bough!

     God keep me still! For here I write

     A scripture bright in great woods now.

     Each scriptorium had its own library. The books were kept in

satchels, and hung from the rafters in the scribe's hut. The

satchels were of leather, and tooled and decorated. The more

valuable the book the more elaborate was the case in which it was

stored. Sometimes the container was made of metal, and

embellished with precious stones. The library of Bobbio, at the

end of the tenth century, contained no fewer than seven hundred

volumes.

TONSURE

     A great amount of study has been devoted to a consideration

of the Celtic tonsure. The clearest description has been left by

Bede:

     As for the tonsure that Simon the magician is said to have

     worn, I ask what faithful Christian will not instantly

     detest it and reject it together with all his magic. On the

     forehead it has indeed a superficial resemblance to a crown,

     but when you look at the back, you will find the apparent

     crown cut short, so that you may fairly regard this custom

     as characteristic of simoniacs, and not of Christians. 

     "Monks and clerics", Bede noted, differed not at all in

their tonsures. J. Dowden appears to have hit upon the most

feasible solution of the problem. Noting that the Celtic tonsure

had a superficial resemblance to a crown on the forehead, he

concluded that there was probably a tuft or fringe of hair left

in the front. The side view would suggest that the hair had been

shaved "from ear to ear". Whatever the mode of cutting the hair

the issue of the tonsure raised two questions. Firstly, the

Celtic hair-cut was slurringly called the tonsure of Simon Magus,

probably because the druids (magi) had cut their hair in that

fashion. It seems likely that, when the Christian cleric took

the place of the druid in Celtic life, he not only adopted the

right of hereditary succession, laws, and education from the

druids and adapted them to his own Christian usages, but he

apparently also dressed and cut his hair in a similar manner. In

Celtic lands a tonsure was a badge of office or status. There

were different kinds of tonsure. W. Stokes long ago pointed out

that there were two sorts of tonsure at least, and possibly

three, which were mentioned in the "Lives." There were the

clerical or monachal tonsure, the tonsure of the slave, and

the druidical tonsure, if different.

     Columbanus required his monks to "wash their heads ... on

every fifteenth day, or certainly on account of the growth of the

flowing hair. From the monuments, de Paor noted that

ecclesiastics often appear clean shaven, while laymen and

soldiers have drooping moustaches, and sometimes have forked and

pointed beard. S.Salvian described the tonsure of monks in his

age and locale as being simply a "close crop". Perhaps the short

haircut was originally selected as a badge to distinguish the

Christian from the "barbarian", and later became encrusted with

fictitious associations of sanctity. It would seem that at

different times and in different sections of the Celtic Church

tonsures varied.

     But, like the Easter controversy, the tonsure controversy

took on overtones of authority. The Romanizing party required all

the clerics to submit to the rulings of the Western Church. At

this distance the question arises, Why did such a simple thing as

a haircut rouse the feelings it did over a thousand years ago? A

parallel might be found in the case of the veil and the fez in

modern Turkey. Such inconsequential things distinguished the

older order of tradition and religion from the new order. The

veil and fez were symbols of the authority of the past. The power

that imposed its way and forced its symbols on the populace was

dictatorial. So was the Roman tonsure eventually imposed upon the

Celtic Christians.

(YES, MANY THINGS WERE IMPOSED ON CELTIC 

CHRISTIANITY BY THE CHURCH OF ROME, THAT 

WENT FORTH TO CONQUER THE WORLD, AS IT 

STILL DOES TODAY - Keith Hunt)

     It apparently took some time after the Easter controversy

had been settled for the tonsure controversy to be resolved. As

late as 887 there still existed differences, for in that year

"Anealoen the pilgrim came to Ireland, and the wearing of the

hair long was abolished by him, and tonsure was accepted."

     Although general acceptance of Roman practices came about 

in 695 in northern Ireland, there evidently were pockets of

resistance in certain parts of the independent Celtic Church. But

there was a ruling in an early Welsh law against the practice of

allowing the hair to grow long, which the new mode of hair-cut

ignored:

"If any Catholic lets his hair grow in the fashion of the

barbarians, he shall be held an alien from the Church of God and

from the table of every Christian until he mends his fault."

(THEY DID KNOW THAT AS THE APOSTLE PAUL WAS 

INSPIRED TO SAY, IT IS A SHAME FOR A MAN TO HAVE 

LONG HAIR - Keith Hunt)

FOOD

     Another Celtic practice had to do with food. Besides the

restriction of diet which strict asceticism imposed, other

factors affected the Celtic Christian's choice of food. The Old

Testament regulations on the use of "unclean" flesh has been

noted already. There is evidence that some saints were

vegetarians and teetotalers for health reasons, which had nothing

to do with ascetic practice. Samson of DoL was very particular

about his own diet: "To be sure he was one who never, throughout

his whole life, tasted such a thing as the flesh of any beast or

winged creature; no one ever saw him drunk; never through change

of mind, or halting indecision, nor even in the least degree did

any kind of drink injure him in any way." The reason for this

careful consideration of what he ate was health:

     Moreover, it was a custom in the consitutions of this

monastery to bruise herbs from the garden, such as were

beneficial for the health, in a vessel and to serve it out in

small quantities to the several brothers in their porringers by

means of a small siphon for their health's sake, so that when

they came in from saying Terce they found the mixing vessel

already prepared with garden herbs. 

     Evidently the brethren had stumbled on the benefits of

vitamins and minerals from raw vegetables and herbs.

     The "Amhra Chulimb Chille" preserved an ancient tradition of

the dietary habits of Columba. He "used not to drink ale". He was

just as strict on diet as Samson, for "he used to avoid flesh or

the beef or condiment". He went so far as to resolve that "he

would not eat fish lest disease should take him". The Old-Irish

"Life of Columba" contained a similar account of his way of life.

And he used not to drink ale, and used not to eat meat, and used

not to eat savoury things, as Dallan Forguill said in the Amra:

He drank not ale; he loved not satiety; He avoided flesh. 

     The glossator remarked on the Apostle's warning "that he may

regulate foods, that is, to forbid lust, for if gluttony were

not, lust would not be". This connection between diet and lust is

most interesting. He also noted on St Paul's remark regarding

"meat and drink" that it "is not this that will bring you to

heaven, though it may be proper food". The impression left by

the few sources which touch on this point is that some of the

leading early Celtic Christians had a high regard for the place

of healthful living in maintaining Christian character.

     The regulations of Adamnan were based, in part, on the Liber

ex Lege Moisi. The law stipulated that swine should not be eaten

because they were unclean. Adamnan modified this directive:

     "Swine's flesh that has become thick or fat on carrion is to

     be rejected like the carrion by which it grows fat. When,

     however, the swine has grown smaller and returned to its

     original thinness, it is to be taken." 

     Should any animal with horns push and kill a man, it should

be slain, and its flesh cast out as carrion, so stipulated the

Hebrew law. Adamnan, on the other hand, ruled thus: "Swine that

taste the flesh or blood of men are always forbidden. For in the

Law any animal that pushes with the horn. if it kills a man, is

forbidden; how much more those that eat man." The Mosaic law

stipulated that only those creatures which had been slaughtered

so that the blood flowed freely from the body might be taken as

food:

     Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of

     fow or of beast, in any of your dwellings. Whatsoever soul

     it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall

     be cut off from his people (Lev. 7.26-7).

     Adamnan clearly declared that he followed this regulation.

The flesh must be treated as carrion if not slaughtered

correctly:

     For the fact that the higher blood had not flowed, which is

     the guardian and seat of life, but was clotted within the

     flesh ... he who eats this flesh shall know that he has

     eaten the flesh with the blood; since the Lord has forbidden

     this, it is not the cooking of the flesh but the shedding of

     the blood that is lacking ... Nevertheless, the fat and the

     hides we shall have for divers uses.

(WE SEE SOME TRUTHS THE CELTIC CHURCH 

RETAINED, BUT SOME WERE MERE PERSONAL 

CHOICE, NOT TO EAT MEAT, AS IN ROMANS 14 - 

Keith Hunt)

MONEY

     Another Mosaic regulation had to do with the use of money,

and prohibited the receiving of usury: "If thou lend money to any

of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an

usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury." The "Excerpts

from the Book of David" incorporated this Mosaic legislation into

the Celtic penitential canons: "He who receives usury shall give

up those things that he had received."  The Old Testament

certainly was pervasive in Celtic thinking.

FEMININE HYGIENE

     Still another Old Testament regulation dealt with feminine

hygiene. Couples were to abstain from intercourse "during the

entire menstrual period". This was in compliance with the rule of

the Liber ex Lege Moisi which stipulated that a woman in this

condition was "unclean". Another penitential regulated a mother's

uncleanness after childbirth: "After the birth he shall abstain,

if it is a son, for thirty-three days; if a daughter, for sixty-six days." 

This is an application of the Mosaic law also.

SECOND WIFE

The position of a secondary wife or adaltrach was carefully

defined by the Senchus Mor, with stipulations which appear to

have grown out of the relationship of Abraham with Hagar and

Sarah.

MARRYING A BROTHER'S WIFE

     Among the charges which have been brought up against the

Celtic Christians on more than one occasion is that a man sinned

in marrying his deceased brother's widow. Giraldus Cambrensis

said:

     "Nay, what is most detestable, and not only contrary to the

     Gospel, but to everything that is right, in many parts of

     Ireland, brothers (I will not say marry) seduce and debauch

     the wives of their brothers deceased, and have incestuous

     intercourse with them." 

     One of the points which Queen Margaret considered wrong in

the conduct of the Celtic Christian remnants in Scotland of

her day was "a surviving brother's marriage with the wife of a

brother who had died". This custom was a literal application

of the statute in the Old Testament known as the Levirate

marriage common among ancient Semitic peoples. Its purpose was

that the name of the deceased brother should not become extinct.

It was only carried out when the widow was childless, and only

until a male heir had been born. It was a misunderstanding of

this Celtic conscientious adherence to the letter of the Old

Testament which roused the censure of critics of its practices.

(SHOULD BE NO SURPRISE AS THE CELTIC CHURCH 

OBSERVED MANY OLD TESTAMENT LAWS - Keith Hunt)

..........

NOTE:

IT  WOULD  APPEAR  THAT  THE CELTIC  TOWN/CITY  COMMUNITY  WAS  THE  SOCIAL/WELFARE  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  POPULACE.  AND  WE  NOTE  THE  

PRACTICE  OF  SOME  TRUTHS  BUT  ALSO  THE  INFLUENCE  THAT  THE  ROMAN  CHURCH  WAS  HAVING  ON  THE  CELTIC  CHURCH.

Keith Hunt

To be concluded with "Conclusions"