THE CELTIC CHURCH IN BRITAIN
by Leslie Hardinge (1972)
PREFACE
Studies in the Celtic Church are attaining increasing importance,
not only among scholars, archaeologists, theologians, historians,
and linguists, but also among general readers. The books on
Celtic topics, both popular and technical, multiply year by year.
The anniversary of the landing of Columba fourteen centuries ago,
celebrated in so many ways in 1963, has aroused great interest.
The purpose of this work is twofold: to investigate the sources
so as to discover what Celtic Christians actually believed and
practised; and to arrange the available facts so as to present a
systematic picture of this aspect of Christianity. Due emphasis
will be placed on those points which are unique.
The expression "Celtic Church", as used in this work, connotes
that group of Christians which lived in the British Isles before
the coming of the Italian mission of Augustine (A.D. 597), and
continued for about a century, or a little more, in an
independent state. The term "church" is a handy title for this
body of believers, and has no suggestion that they constituted
anything of an organization with a centralized government or an
acknowledged head. "Britain" is employed as a simple designation
of the entire British Isles, as, during the period under review,
Ireland was known as "lesser Britain."
Certain appellations are used with special meanings. The names
of countries, such as England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Germany,
and France, and of counties, such as Cornwall, Somerset, and
Devon, indicate the localities suggested by their
twentieth-century meanings. This is done for clarity. In original
quotations, in which, for example, the Irish are called Scots,
the context will reveal the correct significance. "Old-Irish",
always hyphenated, points to works written before about eight
hundred. "Glossator", "commentator" and "theologian", connected
with the glosses preserved in the Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus, are
general titles for the clerics who wrote them. They are used
interchangeably for variety. Although these glosses were written
by two or three hands, they all come within the Old-Irish period.
They are regarded as containing what might for convenience be
called the consensus of Celtic opinion on topics theological. In
the context of Christian studies, "Celtic" invariably means
"Celtic Christian". The word "beliefs" is a simple heading for
the doctrinal and moral concepts which were the dynamics of the
conduct of Celtic Christians, while "practices" indicates their
outward religious acts, both in worship and behaviour which grew
out of such beliefs.
The Celtic Church began at a date unknown. In this investigation
the starting-point is the mission of Patrick some time towards
the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century. The
investigation of the beliefs and practices of the Christianity
which he professed, and which he probably gained from his father
and grandfather who were both clergymen, will have as its
starting-point the usages and doctrines of the mid-fourth
century. During the larger portions of the fifth and practically
the entire sixth century the Celtic Church was apparently cut off
from Western Christianity, and developed points of view which
were different from those of the broad stream of believers in
Mediterranean lands. Subsequent to their contact with continental
Christianity at the very end of the sixth century the Celts
continued their independence until they were, section by section,
gradually absorbed by the Church of the Romans.
The end of the independence of the segments of the Celtic Church
took place at different times. Southern Ireland was the first to
throw in its lot with the representatives of the Italian mission.
If a date is to be set, perhaps 632 would be suitable.
Northumbria, through its king and leaders, gave up Celtic usages
following the Council of Whitby, 664. Northern Ireland
surrendered to the eloquent appeals of Adamnan and accepted Roman
customs at the very end of the seventh century, 695. The
Christians in Scotland, with their headquarters at Iona, felt the
heavy hand of King Nectan, who in 717 banished the Columbate
brethren from their island retreat and established at Iona those
who followed Roman traditions. But there were still remnants of
these independent Christians in Scotland when Margaret became
queen in the second quarter of the twelfth century, at which time
they threw in their lot with Canterbury. Some time about 768 the
Celts of South Wales, that is, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall,
appear to have joined forces with the Anglo-Roman Church, while
North Wales (modern Wales), accepted Catholic views about 777.
When the Celts assumed Roman usages, they surrendered their
independence. The Celtic Church was no longer purely "Celtic",
but became Anglo-Roman-Celtic. Its uniqueness receded with the
passing years. It is the purpose of this study to seek for those
beliefs and practices which these Celtic believers professed
before they were modified by seventh and eighth-century
traditions from continental Europe.
That they held special doctrines and usages, differing in several
respects from those of Italian Christianity, is vouched for by
the sources.
The weight of this evidence tends to underline the fact that
there existed fundamental and far-reaching differences between
the Celtic and Roman Churches. Rome was ignorant of these
discrepancies until the opening decade of the seventh century. It
seems reasonable to conclude that the Celts were, for their part,
also unaware of the beliefs and usages of the Roman Christians.
The purpose of the historian is to discover what those
differences were.
A vast literature has sprung up during the past century on
various aspects of the Celtic Church. Monumental bibliographies
have been compiled, among which J. F. Kenney, "The Sources of the
Early History of Ireland; Ecclesiasticali," and Wilfrid Bonser,
"An Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Bibliography," 450-1087 deserve
special mention. They greatly aid the historian who is kept up to
date with the help of the bibliographies published annually in
the journal of the "Irish Historical Society," under the
inspiration of Ludwig Bieler.
But among the almost twenty-five thousand books and articles
listed the present investigator has not been able to find a
single volume devoted solely to a consideration of the beliefs
and practices of the Celtic Christians. Passing allusions to, and
studies of, concepts and acts of worship and conduct there are,
but the only work even nearly touching the plan of this book is
F. E. Warren, "The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church," and
it was written over eighty-five years ago. But, as its title
suggests, it deals with only one important phase, which is
actually outside the scope of this book. It is hoped that the
following pages will be a first step in filling the need for a
brief, comprehensive handbook on the topic of the beliefs and
practices of the Celtic Church. It should be emphasized that this
study excludes the liturgy and the institutions of the Celts
which constitute a phase too vast to be touched in this work, and
must be left to another investigation.
The sources for this study may be listed under seven heads.
Histories and geographies, by Patrick, Gildas, Nennius, Bede and
Adamnan, Dicuil and Giraldus Cambrensis, while not specifically
such in the modern sense, reveal insights into the thinking and
acting of the Christians during the times of these authors.
Narratives, which were but oral traditions written down later,
are replete with clues. Comminatory stories, containing
anachronisms, nevertheless reveal what the writers believed were
the actual facts of the case. Reflecting traditional memories of
the clerical scribes, they are often very useful contributions to
an understanding of early conditions and backgrounds. The
critical historian must try cautiously to demythologize these
accounts.
The Lives of saints, a large number of which have been preserved,
also often full of anachronisms and propaganda, reveal
conditions, not always of the saint's age, but of the times of
the writers. These biographies are occasionally in the form of
homilies. They were probably read long ago, by the light of
sputtering candles, to monks relaxed over their suppers, and
present points which the historian is able to weave into the
tapestry he is preparing.
Scattered over the pages of Celtic Christian literature many
poems and verses may be found, containing religious ideas which
are illuminating. The ancient Annals are indispensable mines of
information. Although they are more accurate for the compiler's
own age, they also show, here and there, what the Celtic
Christians believed and practised. Legislation, both civil and
ecclesiastical, the Liber ex Lege Moisi, laws, penitentials, and
rules, also are vital sources.
Glosses, crowding between the lines of Old-Irish biblical texts
and commentaries on the Scriptures, being suggestions for
sermonic development, are the finest indexes for the theological
views of these ancient Christians. Written in Old-Irish,
preserved inviolate in continental libraries, they crystallize
the concepts of the Celtic Church.
A word of thanks is also due to my artist friends, Clyde
Provonsha and C. M. Hubert Cowen, for the line drawings and
initial letters and chapter headings which add so much interest
to the opening pages of each chapter.
LESLIE HARDINGE
INTRODUCTION
The RISE of the CELTIC church m BRITAIN
Christianity tiptoed into Britain. It left no written records of
its entry, but here and there its footprints may be traced in the
soil of these islands.
Archaeological evidence of Christianity in Roman Britain is
meagre. A fragment, containing a Christian cryptogram, attests
the witness of Christians before the peace of Constantine. The
foundations of what were probably two small churches of this
period have so far been discovered at Silchester and Caerwent.
The chirho monogram has been found in several places: worked into
mosaics; carved on building stones, rings, and lamps; and painted
on the walls of houses. It is found most frequently in southern
England. Excavations since 1947 in London, and from 1949 at the
Roman villa of Lullingstone, on the Darent, have revealed other
possible Celtic Christian remains. Christian symbols found at
Lullingstone house chapel are the earliest in any building in
Britain. Similar house chapels have been unearthed in Gaul.
The purpose of this chapter is to consider briefly the evidences
bearing on the origin of Celtic Christianity so as to form a
framework for the study of its beliefs and practices.
Among the precious remains in Scotland are the three Kirkmandrine
gravestones. Excavations at the east end of the church at
Whithorn have revealed what might well be a fifth-century place
of worship. Three possible Celtic Christian artifacts were
unearthed at Traprain Law in East Lothian. But these fragments of
archaeological evidence tell only of the presence of Christians
before the fifth century, they do not establish that an organized
Church existed, nor do they show any particular place of origin
for Celtic Christianity.
Written records of the presence of early Christians are extremely
meagre. The earliest statements are merely passing illusions by a
few church fathers. The first hint of a group of organized (314),
convened by the Emperor Constantine. Three bishops, a presbyter,
and a deacon are recorded as having come from Britain, but even
this statement is open to question. It should be stressed that
this council met independently of the bishop of Rome, who was not
present. A copy of its decisions was sent "fratri Sylvestro."
British clerics were also present at the Council of Rimini (359).
Three of them were so poor that they accepted financial aid from
the Emperor.
Gildas lamented that British Christians were plagued by Arianism,
while Germanus and Lupus are believed to have come to their aid
against Pelagianism. Germanus is believed to have returned with
Severus (444-5) at the request of British Christians, possibly to
help in their combat with Pelagianism, or perhaps to encourage
them to bear up under the blows of the Picts and Scots. Who
authorized these visits has yet to be established. But from the
middle of the fifth century nothing further was heard of British
Christians until the arrival of Augustine one hundred and fifty
years later. That Christians were in Britain during the fourth
and fifth centuries is known, but when or whence they came cannot
yet be established.
(The author lacked the knowledge or research into the early
arrival of Christianity into Britain, which has been established
by other authors and researchers, reproduced on this website -
Keith Hunt)
Scarcely had the tramp of the feet of the departing Romans died
away than the Picts and Scots surged into northern England. The
people fled, their farms ravaged, their homes in ashes. Decades
of fluctuating war and peace followed. About the middle of the
fifth century the desperate British leaders solicited help from
the pagan Saxons. Soon the guests from the Continent had become
the masters of England. When Augustine landed in Britain in 597
the country was virtually heathen. What Christians there were had
fled to the far west.
(Again the author was short on correct research into early
Christianity in Britain - Keith Hunt)
But even traces of these Christian settlements in Wales before
the coming of Augustine are slight and scattered. On the lonely
moors of Cornwall Christian settlers have left traces of their
existence in several caves. The Picts of southern Scotland
probably received the faith through the preaching of Ninian.
Ninian's name is embedded in several place-names scattered over
Scotland and the Western Isles.
The presence of Christians in Scotland during the fifth century
is also vouched for by Patrick's complaint to Coroticus that his
soldiers were "apostate." About a century after Ninian's death
Kentigern laboured in the region now known as Glasgow. He is even
more of a shadowy figure than Ninian. Jocelyn, his biographer,
confessed that he had found some things "contrary to sound
doctrine and the Catholic faith" in the old biography of
Kentigern. Being "grieved and indignant that the life of so
priceless a prelate ... should be tainted with heretical
passages", he rewrote his story, seasoning "the barbarous
composition with Roman salt." Ailred recorded that he had used
similar methods in his "Life of Ninian." This tendency of later
bagiographers must be kept in mind when seeking for the beliefs
and practices followed by early saints. The faith and works of a
sixth-century Celtic saint evidently appeared "contrary to sound
doctrine and the Catholic faith" to a pious writer of the twelth
century. What these "heretical passages" might indicate will be
considered later. When Columba arrived there were few, if any,
Christians still surviving in Scotland. It would appear that it
was from Ireland that the faith was successfully reintroduced
into Scotland.
But how Christianity came to Ireland in the first place is not
known. By the end of the fourth century a few representatives of
the faith had apparently reached its shores. The old Irish
writers had little doubt that there had been Christians in
Ireland before Patrick began his missionary work. Tirechan, in a
homily on the life of Patrick, mentioned archaeological remains
of liturgical objects, glass chalices under a stone altar. There
are also notices, in the Book of Armagh, of Christian clerics in
Ireland before the saint's arrival who later pledged the support
of their churches to Patrick. Patrick himself recorded that he
had laboured "to confirm the people". This might well mean those
previously baptized by others. He also noted that he had
travelled into pagan regions in which no Christian had previously
preached.
(Once more I state that the coming of Christianity into Britian
very early - during the first century AD can be found in
historical material, but most will not acknowledge it. It would
seem this author was one of them, if she even knew where to look
for such proof - Keith Hunt)
At the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth centuries
conditions on the Continent seem to have forced numbers to flee
westward. Kuno Meyer rightly pointed out that among these
refugees there were probably Christians. Virgilius Maro recorded
that Huns invaded the Goths with the result that the depopulation
of the entire Empire commenced. This was completed by the Huns
and Vandals and Goths and Alans, "owing to whose devastation all
the learned men on this side of the sea fled away, and in
transmarine parts, i.e. in Hiberial and wherever they betook
themselves, brought about a very great advance of learning to the
inhabitants of those regions" Ecclesiastical loan words modified
in Irish would attest such intercourse.
During the fifth and sixth centuries, while the Continent and
even Britain were ravaged by sporadic wars, Ireland in its
seclusion appears to have been the bastion of learning and
Christianity. During these troubled years many British students
received a kindly welcome and hospitable entertainment from the
Irish schools. The lot of Christians in Ireland was improved by
the coming of Patrick, a Briton, born of three generations of
clergy about 388. Patrick's grandfather was ordained a priest
about 325. The Christianity practised by Patrick's ancestors and
by the saint himself would reflect no further modifications in
faith and works than would be held by Christians generally,
during the early fourth century.
When Palladius, ordained and authorized by Celestine, came to
Ireland (c. 431), he "baptized a few in that place" and founded
three churches." But the "Irish already believing in Christ" did
not rally about Palladius, who withdrew from the island and died
during the following year. It seems that the attitude of the
Celtic Christians in Ireland towards the emissary of Pope
Celestine, was similar to that shown by the Celtic Christians of
England a century and a half later towards Augustine.
The churches which Patrick established in Ireland continued after
his death, but were apparently not many in number. Wilfrid
taunted Colman and his friends, saying: "Do you imagine that
they, a few men in a corner of a remote island, are to be
preferred before the universal Church?" And the letter of Pope
Honorius addressed to the Irish "earnestly warned them not to
imagine that their little community, isolated at the uttermost
ends of the earth, had a monopoly of wisdom over all the ancient
and new churches throughout the world" When the clerics at the
court of Alfred were trying to convert Adamnan to the Roman
practices, Adamnan "was earnestly advised by many who were more
learned than himself not to presume to act contrary to the
universal customs of the church, whether in the keeping of Easter
or in many other observances, seeing that his following was very
small and situated in a remote corner of the world. In his letter
to his superior at Iona, Cummian gave his reasons for deserting
the usage of the Celts in favour of that of Rome. He discussed
the unity of Catholic countries and contrasted them with "the
little party formed by the Britons and Scots, who are almost at
the very end of the world, and but a mere eruption, so to speak,
on its surface."
These charges could easily have been countered had the Celtic
Church had a large following. The picture that seems to emerge
from the sources is of a comparatively small band of enthusiastic
missionaries wielding an influence greatly disproportionate to
their numbers, doing a work quite out of keeping with their size,
and maintaining their zeal for an impressively long period.
The time during which British Christianity is lost sight of (450-
597), was an important one for the development of Western
Christian thinking. Many changes took place. It does not seem
likely that the recommendations of Nicea or the definitions of
Augustine and other great councils and teachers were known to
Patrick and the Christian communities he established. L. Gougaud
might well be right in thinking that there was no such thing as a
Celtic Church with a unified system of beliefs and practices.
Christianity in the far west of Europe during the unsettled
decades of the fifth and sixth centuries would concern itself
only with providing principles for a simple and helpful way of
life. With little centralized control communities would develop
their own emphases and views, and ecclecticism and pragmatism
would mark the early beliefs and practices of Celtic Christians.
As teachers developed, they interpreted the Scriptures as they
felt best.
..........
NOTE:
The author, and many others, did not research enough, or
deliberately refused what they saw in recorded history to prove
there was a large and vast Christian religion in the British
Isles centuries before the coming of the Roman church in 597 AD.
That history you can find in other studies on this website.
Keith Hunt
To be continued
The Celtic Church in Britain #2
ZEALOUS for Missionary Work
by Leslie Hardinge (1972)
The MISSIONARY OUTREACH OF CELTIC CHRISTIANITY
Bede's story of the Church in Britain brings his readers face to
face with the Celtic attitude toward evangelism. He records that
Augustine began his approach to the indigenous British Christians
"by urging them to establish brotherly relations with him in
Catholic unity, and to join with him in God's work of preaching
the Gospel to the heathen". But the Celts refused. This has been
interpreted as indicating their lack of zeal for the conversion
of the pagan Saxons. But conquerors have seldom been eager to
accept the religion of the conquered. The records suggest that
Celtic Christians at large were eager to propagate their faith.
This may be established from Bede's own records. And one of the
canons attributed to Patrick stressed that "one's country is
first to be taught, after the example of Christ; and afterwards
if it does not make progress, it is to be abandoned".
After his second attempt to persuade the Celtic Christian leaders
to co-operate with him proved futile. Augustine laid down his
ultimatum. Here is his final statement as Bede has preserved it,
and Bede's own comment on its result. Augustine invited the
British Christians "to join with us in preaching the word of God
to the English. But the bishops refused these things, nor would
they recognize Augustine as their archbishop". The last sentence
is the crux of the matter. The British Christian leaders would
not submit to Augustine. It was a matter of authority and not
merely of a lack of zeal for evangelism. To have complied with
the request for the former they evidently felt would have
amounted to submission to the latter.
Notwithstanding all this, one of the main characteristics of
Celtic Christians during the seventh century was the stress they
laid upon missionary activity. Far and wide the "pilgrims for
God" ranged the islands of the western seas, lashed by storms.
Their frail coracles bore them from Ireland to the land of the
pagans of North Britain, untamed in heathenism. Across into the
Continent ravaged by war, the representatives of the Celtic
Church carried the gospel. For the British evangelist "to voyage
over the seas, and to pace over broad tracts of land was not so
much a weariness as a delight", Gildas recorded. They often
embarked in the smallest of currachs, allowing the winds and
currents to bear them where they would. Some must have found
unmarked graves in the rough waters of the north Atlantic. With
no assistance from a missionary base at home, into lands unknown,
the pilgrim evangelists journeyed. They lived where they were
able to find shelter; they ate what they received from hospitable
strangers. Here is a story, although of a later date, which is
typical of any point during the period of Celtic missionary
activity:
Three Scots came to king Alfred in a boat without any oars,
from Ireland, whence they had stolen away, because they
desired, for the love of God, to be in a state of
pilgrimage, they necked not where. The boat in which they
came was wrought of two hides and a half, and they took with
them food sufficient for seven nights; and on the seventh
night they came to land in Cornwall, and then went
straightways to king Alfred.
And so Celtic Christians, in gratitude for the faith they had
received, travelled from their homes, "propter nomen Domini,
making always peregrinatio pro Dei amore."
Interest in this type of evangelism probably started in Ireland
through the influence of Patrick's example. His words must have
stirred the hearts of his people: "Who was it that called me,
fool though I be? ... that ... I should faithfully be of service
to the nation to whom the love of Christ conveyed me ..." This
labour, he affirmed, he had "learnt from Christ my Lord". He
looked back after his eventful life and testified that his only
reason for returning to Ireland was the gospel and God's
promises.
Those who revered Patrick's memory followed his lead. Later
Celtic preachers used arguments taken from biblical precedents
when advocating missionary enterprise. The "Old-Irish Life of
Columba" sketched the saint's career in the form of a sermon
probably read on the occasion of his festival. The speaker
introduced his theme by discussing the call of Abraham to go from
Ur to the Promised Land. He presented three reasons why similar
pilgrimages should be made in his time. God's grace might call
men to service in foreign lands; other missionaries might make
appeals; a "soul-friend" might suggest such a trip. To these,
three further reasons might be added: the ascetic urge to find
the "desert"; the Celt's love of adventure; or the expulsion of
those who maintained the old usages in face of the gradual
Romanization of the Celtic Church. These motives, singly or in
combination, scattered hundreds of pilgrim-missionaries into
distant lands. The movement probably started with Columba in 563.
Place names, and dedications of churches across Europe and its
islands demonstrate the extent to which these evangelists
travelled.
Columba's contribution towards the conversion of Scotland and the
accomplishment of his followers in Christianizing their Anglo-
Saxon neighbours is, from the viewpoint of world history, the
most momentous achievement of the Irish section of the Celtic
Church. In 563, at the age of forty-one, Columba left Ireland for
Iona with a dozen helpers.
King Bruide is credited with having given Iona to Columba as a
missionary base. From it Columba's followers and successors
spread their settlements into remote parts of Scotland, and out
to the western islands. And so the long task of bringing the
northern heathen tribes into the Christian fold began. But not
only did the Columban church reach out to evangelize Scotland, it
also spread its influence into England. By 632 Augustine's
disciple Paulinus, after founding an outpost of Christianity in
Northumbria, was forced by a rise of paganism and war to flee
south, leaving Hames the deacon to try to maintain the faith.
After the departure of Paulinus the Christianity in the north of
England passed into another phase. While Oswald had been in exile
at Iona, the brethren had instructed him carefully in "the
teachings of the Scottish church". When he became king, he
apparently disregarded whatever remnants of Kentish Roman
Christianity might still have remained, and sent to his old
friends at Iona for a missioner to instruct the Northumbrians in
the Celtic Christian faith. The first Celtic preacher to respond
was too exacting and met with little success before he returned
home disgruntled. The brethren at Iona held a council to discuss
their next move. One of their number made the point that the
spread of the gospel among pagans would be hastened by tact and
patience. The others noted his insight into the situation and
decided that he would be a suitable missionary. So Aidan was
immediately ordained and sent to Northumbria.
It was probably about 635 AD that Aidan arrived. As had Columba
before him, Aidan picked an island off the coast as his base. It
was from Lindisfarne that light penetrated pagan Northumbria. On
occasion King Oswald himself acted as Aidan's interpreter in the
work of evangelizing his subjects. From the north, Celtic
Christian beliefs spread into the kingdom of the Middle Angles,
and thence into Essex. Here Fursey from Ireland had pioneered
Christianity. The brethren of Lindisfarne spread the knowledge of
the cross from the Forth to the Thames. There were, however,
large areas of Britain which remained rough and pagan.
On the day Aidan died in 651, the young lad Cuthbert requested
entrance into the Christian community at Melrose. He was destined
to become the most illustrious missionary of that celebrated
settlement. Sometimes on horseback, more often on foot, Cuthbert
sought out distant villages and everywhere preached the gospel"'
leaving behind him "a fame which no Churchman north of the Humber
has surpassed or even rivalled". When the initial success of
Augustine and his followers failed to fulfil its promise, it was
the group of missionaries from Iona, establishing their base on
"the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, the true cradle of English
Christianity" that gave the faith a precarious foothold up into
Scotland and down into England.
Celtic missionaries also laboured on the Continent. About the
time Columba established Iona, Columbanus was born in what is
today Leinster. His first schooling was under Sinell on the
island of Clauin, in Lough Erne. He moved on to the Christian
school of Bangor on Belfast Lough, about 580, for further study
with Comgall. After he had been many years in the cloister he
longed to go into strange lands and with twelve companions
crossed England and reached Gaul. Preaching and teaching as he
and his friends were able, living and toiling with any who shared
hospitality with them, the Celtic clerics entered Burgundy the
next year. King Sigibert, grandson of Clovis, welcomed Columbanus
and gave the ruins of the ancient Roman castle of Anegray
(Anagrates) in the Vosges, as a site for the first Celtic
monastery on the Continent. Austere to severe, the regulations
which Columbanus drew up bound his fellows to rigid lives of
stern discipline. Their food was simple, their labours
exhausting, their devotions long sustained. Either refraction or
forgetfulness was immediately punished.
From this Christian household the salutary principles of religion
and education, the blessings of mercy and tolerance, the
disciplines of justice and righteousness flowed gently into the
turgid stream of Gallic life. Multitudes journeyed to listen to
the Irish teacher and stayed to believe. But opposition from
angry pagans and jealous Roman clerics drove them eventually
through the region which is today called Switzerland and on into
Italy. King Agilulf donated Bobbio to Columbanus. Here the
Irishmen built up a Christian settlement and laid the foundations
of what was to become the most famous Celtic house in Italy.
But not only did the missionaries from Ireland travel across
Scotland and down into England and on into the Continent, they
also turned their eyes northward. To the isles of the western
seas as far away as Iceland and beyond they sailed their tiny
craft. Maol Rubha, born into the same clan as Columba, crossed
into Scotland in 671 and established a settlement at Applecross
in the region known today as Ross-shire, between Loch Garron and
Loch Torridon. He preached both in Scotland and also in Skye and
other islands of the Hebrides. Dying in his eightieth year, Maol
Rubha left a reputation almost as glowing as that of the great
Columba himself.
THEY WERE 7TH DAY SABBATH OBSERVERS
Celtic pilgrims soon occupied islands lying to the extreme north
of Scotland. The ancient Norwegian chronicler noted that "these
islands were at first inhabited by the Picts and papae", and "the
papae have been named from their white robes, which they wore
like priests; whence priests are all called papae in the Teutonic
tongue. An island is still called after them Papey. But, as is
observed from their habit and the writings of their books
abandoned there, they were Africans, adhering to Judaism."
Here is a very early record of Celtic Christian settlers who were
accused of "adhering to Judaism". This expression is used to
indicate observers of the Jewish Sabbath. This evidence suggests
that early Celtic Christians followed this custom. These pioneers
were Christians who tenaciously held to their ancient beliefs and
had been banished by tyrants such as King Nectan.
(Ah yes indeed, the true Christianity brought to Britain in the
first century AD was a Christianity of 7th day Sabbath observing,
hence Rome accused them of Judaism and of being heretics - it is
recorded in history, the facts are there for those who will see
with their eyes - Keith Hunt)
From the outer Hebrides or from the northern Orkneys, or it might
even have been from Ireland itself, the Irish missionary-
settler-hermit-adventurers sailed up into the Atlantic looking
for a "desert" in which to fulfil their pilgrimage. The Irish
geographer Dicuil wrote (c. 825) that a priest had told him that
"for nearly a hundred years hermits dwelt, [in the Faroes] from
our Scottia (Ireland) ... But the Norsemen had slain every one of
them." So it was believed that as early as 725 Celtic settlers
had lived on the Faroes.
But not satisfied with these outposts in the ocean, more daring
pilgrims travelled on to Iceland:
But before Iceland was inhabited (by settlers) from Norway,
there were there the men whom the Norwegians call Parpar;
these were Christian men, and it is believed that they had
come from the west beyond the sea, because Irish books, and
bells, and croziers, were found (left) behind them, and many
other things besides, so that one might know they were
Westmen.
Olaf's Saga added "that they were Christian men, and had come
from the west beyond the sea". Theodoric observed in his
"Historia" that they were "very few" in number. The Norwegian
chronicler noted as of the date 872:
And then the land (which is now called Iceland) began to be
inhabited for the first time, except that a very few men
from the island of Ireland, that is lesser Britain, are
believed to have been there in ancient times, from certain
indications found; namely their books, and certain utensils.
While these Celtic pilgrims were not missionaries in the
strictest sense, even in death their books testified to
succeeding pagan peoples of the Christian faith which they had
professed.
The Celtic predilection for change occasionally was a source of
difficulty. The penitential of Cummean ruled against "any
wandering and unstable man", and decreed that he "shall be healed
by permanent residence in one place". There are records of trips
even to the Holy Land and Rome in later centuries. But these were
not always viewed with favour, as this quatrain in Old-Irish
suggests:
Going to Rome? Going to Rome? 'Twill bring no profit, only
trouble. The King thou there wouldst quest Not found shall
be, if he go not in thy breast.
A similar sentiment was expressed on the virtue of long journeys
in order to find God: "Since God is near to all who call upon
Him, no necessity is laid on us to cross the sea. For one can
approach the kingdom of heaven from every land." These sentiments
seem to reflect a swing away from a regard of pilgrimages,
especially to Rome, as ways for deepening devotion. There were
those who contentedly sighed:
All alone in my little cell without a single soul in my
company. Beloved pilgrimage before going to the tryst with
Death.
And it was for this that Cormac, son of Culennan, made his
choice, singing for many of his friends:
Shall I choose, O King of the mysteries,
After the delight of downy pillows and music,
To go upon the rampart of the sea,
Turning my back upon my native land?
Shall I be in poverty in the battle
Through the grace of the King, a King without decay,
Without great honour, without my chariot,
Without gold, or silver, or horse?
(Finian of Clonard was told by God's angel when desiring to go to
Rome "What would be given thee at Rome", saith he, "will be given
to thee here. Go and renew faith and belief in Ireland after
Patrick" (LSBL, 224). Does this mean that there had taken place
some sort of apostasy in Ireland after the passing of Patrick?
(See Todd, Patrick, 503) Gildas, David, and Cadoc are supposed to
have helped establish the second order of Irish saints)
Shall I launch my dusky little coracle
On the broad-bosomed glorious ocean?
Shall I go, O King of bright Heaven,
Of my own will upon the brine?
Whether it be roomy or narrow,
Whether it be severed by crowds or hosts -
God, wilt Thou stand by me
When it comes upon the angry sea?
Individual response to a divinely placed inner drive to spread
the faith, singly or in groups, impelled Celtic missionaries to
go forth. Without credentials or material support, self-reliant
and trusting in God they accomplished more than their numbers
would warrant. Spontaneity, lack of traditionalism, and
individuality were the features of this movement.
With the gradual Christianizing of the peoples of the Continent
the motives for making journeys outside Celtic lands changed. As
Roman Christianity spread during the seventh and succeeding
centuries, Celtic missionary pilgrims encountered more and more
representatives of the Church of Rome, and after initial
suspicion, and sometimes hostility, many eventually joined with
them.
But not only did this missionary and pilgrim travel in itself
indicate an important phase of the practice of Celtic Christians,
it also provided opportunity for a comparison to be made between
their beliefs and those of Roman Christian communities.
..........
To be continued
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