CHAPTER XXII.

LATER SCHOOLS OF THE WEST.

"'Tis a rosary of islands in the Ocean's hollow palm-- Sites of faith unchanged by storms, all unchanging in the calm, There the world-betrayed may hide them, and the weary heart find balm." --_M'Gee._

I.--ST. COLMAN'S SCHOOL OF MAYO.

The history of St. Colman, who founded the monastery of Innisboffin, and the Monastic School of Mayo, is full of interest. He may be called an island-saint, like Enda of Aran; but his was a far more strange and adventurous career. Trained in Iona, ruling in Lindisfarne, defeated but not subdued by Wilfrid at Whitby, and then coming home in his old age with the relics of his sainted predecessors to labour and to die in the misty islands of the West--there is no element of romantic interest wanting in Colman's extraordinary history.

We may, we think, fairly assume with Colgan that he was a native of some part of the West; for otherwise the very existence of Innisboffin would have been unknown to him. It is quite certain, however, that he received his education and religious training in Iona, and that he was for many years a member of that community. Bede describes him as an Irish Bishop (de Scottia Episcopus), and shows very clearly what he means thereby, when he adds, that on his departure from Lindisfarne he returned to Ireland (in Scottiam regressus est). Indeed, Bede has never, even once, applied the word 'Scottia' except to Ireland.[383]

Colman was a monk in Iona during the abbacy of Segienus, the third ruler of that monastery from A.D. 623 to 652. These were years of much missionary enterprise, especially after King Oswald mounted the throne of Northumbria in A.D. 634. At his request Segienus sent one of his monks, Corban by name, to preach to the Northumbrians. But Corban's mission was a failure; he expected too much from the semi-barbarous Angles of Northumbria; and he offered them the solid food before he gave them the milk of sound doctrine. After his return to Iona, Aidan, an Irishman, as Bede tells us, was consecrated bishop, and sent to preach in Northumbria. Bede gives a most interesting account of his life and character,[384] and adds, as might be expected, that his mission was entirely successful. He converted the Northumbrians, and founded the monastery and See of Lindisfarne about the year A.D. 635. When Bishop Aidan died in A.D. 651, another Irish prelate called Finan was sent to succeed him in the government of the Northumbrian Church. His first task was to build a church in Lindisfarne, of hewn oak, after the manner of the Irish, and he covered it with reeds. In this church he laid the body of his sainted predecessor on the right side of the high altar.

The Easter Controversy, of which we have already spoken, embittered the brief episcopacy of Finan. Like Aidan and all the monks of Iona, he still followed the old Irish custom of calculating the Easter Day, so that the southern Angles, who followed the Roman method, were much scandalized to see the King celebrating Easter Sunday, while the Queen, Eanfled, and her Roman chaplain were keeping the rigorous fast of Palm Sunday.

Bishop Finan died in A.D. 661, after ten years' episcopacy, during which nothing was done to bring about uniformity; and Colman, another Irish monk of Iona, was appointed to succeed him. But he, too, persisted in observing the old Irish Easter, and wearing the frontal tonsure, so that even King Oswy felt it was high time to try and establish one uniform usage in Northumbria.

For this purpose a Conference, or Synod, was appointed to meet in the monastery of Streaneshalch, since called Whitby. The abbess Hilda favoured Bishop Colman, and presided over the assembly as it was held in her monastery; and she was besides a royal lady. King Oswy also favoured the Scots, but Aldfrid, his son, the crown prince, was in favour of the Roman usage. The learned and eloquent Wilfrid, then an abbot, but afterwards Archbishop of York, was the great champion of orthodoxy, and was supported in his views by Agilbert, a Frenchman, who had studied the Scriptures in Ireland, and appears to have been acquainted with the Irish language and usages. On the other side was Colman, and he had an able episcopal supporter in Bishop Cedd, who, though a southern prelate, was inclined to favour the Irish usage, for he was trained and consecrated by the 'Scots,' that is the Irish party.

Colman was called upon by the king to open the discussion. He justified his own usage by three arguments--first, because he received the practice from the holy elders of the Irish Church, who had ordained him bishop and sent him to Northumbria; secondly, because it was the practice of the holy Apostle St. John; and thirdly, because this usage had been sanctioned by the holy and learned Anatolius, a man of great authority in the Church of God.

Then Wilfrid[385] rose to reply, as he was well acquainted with the Anglo-Saxon tongue. He was, besides, an able and learned man who had travelled much abroad. His first argument against Colman was of itself quite conclusive: "The Easter which we observe we saw celebrated everywhere in Africa, Asia, Egypt, and Greece--we saw it celebrated by all men at Rome, where the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, lived, taught, suffered, and were buried." Apostolic authority and universal usage were thus clearly against the few Picts and Britons--the Irish had nearly all given in by this time--who still adhered to the old Easter and the frontal tonsure. As to the authority of St. John, to which Colman appealed, it was not to the purpose. For according to Wilfrid, St. John kept Easter on the 14th day of the first moon in the evening, no matter what day of the week it happened to be--in this respect following the Jews, whilst it was yet lawful to Judaize. "But you, Colman, admit that Easter may not be celebrated on a week day, and hence you do not follow the practice of St. John, nor, as I have shown, of St. Peter either." This was a home thrust for poor Colman, and Wilfrid followed it up by disposing of Anatolius also. "He was, I admit, a holy, learned, and commendable man; but you do not observe his decrees; for he had a cycle of nineteen years of which you know nothing, or if you do, you despise it; although it is now followed by the entire Church."

As to Colman's appeal to the authority of his sainted predecessors, Wilfrid admitted that they were holy men, and perhaps even men of miracles; but they were excusable on account of ignorance of the truth: "you, however," he says, "have no such excuse because the more perfect rule adopted by the entire Church is now brought home to your minds."

Wilfrid concluded by appealing once more to the authority of the Apostolic See of Peter as conclusive, for it was to Peter our Lord said--"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

"Colman," said the king, "is it true that these words were spoken to Peter by our Lord?" "It is true, O king," said Colman. "Then," said the king, "as Peter is the door-keeper, I will not contradict him in anything lest there should be none to open to me if I made him my adversary." So the Conference ended, and Colman and his clerics felt that they were defeated. It was a severe blow to the old man; and he felt it keenly, not for his own sake, but for the sake of his sainted predecessors. "His doctrine," says Bede, "was rejected and his sect despised;" and that, too, by men whom he must have regarded as interlopers. Why should they put their sickles into his harvest? Why not leave him and his clergy and people in peace? When hard work was to be done, they were not to be found--it was the monks of Iona who converted the Northumbrians to the Church; but now these Southerns came to regulate the date of their Easter Day, and forbid them to wear the tonsure, which they had worn from their boyhood, and which was worn by Columcille himself, the great Apostle of the Picts and Scots. It was intolerable; and now as King Oswy and his son Aldfrid had turned from their spiritual fathers to Wilfrid and his associates, Colman resolved to leave Northumbria for ever.

But first the old man returned to Lindisfarne, and told his monks all that had happened. For his own part, he declared that he would not accept the new discipline, nor give up the traditions of his sainted predecessors, who proved their mission by countless miracles; and that, as the king was determined to follow the new discipline introduced by Wilfrid, he himself would return to his native country where he might follow the ancient discipline in peace. Those who listed might remain; but those who choose to come with him were welcome, and together they would seek an asylum in the far west of Ireland.

The sequel is told by Bede:--"Colman, the Irish Bishop, departed from Britain, and took with him all the Irish (Scoti) that he had assembled in the Island of Lindisfarne, and also about thirty of the English nation, who had been instructed in the monastic life, and leaving some brothers in his church of Lindisfarne, he repaired first to the Island of Hii, whence he had been first sent to preach the Word of God to the English nation. Afterwards he retired to a small island, which is to the west of Ireland, and at some distance from its coast, called, in the language of the Irish (Scoti), Inisbofinde, that is, the Island of the White Cow. Arriving there he built a monastery, and placed in it the monks he had brought with him of both nations; who, not agreeing among themselves, by reason that the Scots--that is the Irish--in the summer season, when the harvest was to be brought in, leaving the monastery, wandered about through places with which they were acquainted, yet wished to get a share of what the English monks had provided for their common table. Colman sought to put an end to these dissensions; and, travelling about, at length found a place in Ireland fit to build a monastery, which, in the language of the Scots, is called Mageo" (Mayo.)[386]

Such is the brief, but most interesting, account which the Father of English History gives of the founding of the two monasteries of Inisboffin and Mayo; and it is confirmed in all points by our native Annalists. But there are some few additional particulars to be noted.

When Colman and his monks were leaving Lindisfarne, their hearts were sore at the thought of leaving behind them the relics of their sainted father Aidan, who had founded that church and monastery. Yet they did not wish to carry away all the holy relics, and so they adopted a middle course. They opened the grave which was outside their wooden church, in the little green churchyard, where they had so often walked and prayed. With reverent hands and streaming eyes they took a part of the sacred relics to carry home with them to their native Ireland; the rest, for greater security, they re-interred in the sacristy for those who were to come after them.

Then the band of exiles set out on their journey home. But first, as in duty bound, Colman and his monks resolved to visit Iona, the parent house, which had sent them to preach the Gospel in Northumbria. Bede does not tell us how long they remained there; and it is not easy to fix the period from the dates given in our own Annals. Colman left Lindisfarne A.D. 664; and the _Chronicon Scotorum_,[387] and the first entry in the _Annals of Ulster_[388] tell us that in the same year he came to Inisbofinde. In that case the visit to Iona could only have been a passing one. But the weight of authority goes to show that this voyage of Colman did not take place until A.D. 667 or 668.[389] In the _Ulster Annals_, Hennessy renders the contraction--"cum reliquis scorum," as if it were--cum _reliquiis sanctorum_--"with the relics of saints," which they undoubtedly had with them; but in the _Annals of the Four Masters_ it is rendered with "the other saints;" and in the _Chronicon_, "with the other Irish monks"--as if it were, cum reliquis scotorum. There is, however, no difference in meaning, because Colman brought both with him to Mayo--his Irish monks, and the relics of his sainted father Aidan, if not, also of Columba, and some other saints of Iona.

And there, says Bede, in Inisbofinde he founded his monastery; and, as the _Irish Annals_ say, there he also built his church.

It is a bare and desolate island exposed to all the fury of the Atlantic storms; but the monks of old thought little of comfort so long as they could be alone with God--and who was to disturb them on the naked shores of this barren island? It is probable that at this time the island was uninhabited; and we know, from the Life of St. Flannan of Killaloe, that the people of these western coasts were still half pagan. The more need then of apostolic men to instruct them in Christian doctrine.

The island took its ancient name from a wild tale of a certain white heifer that dwelt in an enchanted lake in the island, whence it was seen to emerge from time to time to graze on its shores. The lake is there still, and, if one may credit the islanders, the White Cow is there too, in spite of St. Colman and all his monks. The island is about six miles due west of Renvyle Point, in the Joyce country, and contains 2,312 statute acres, most of which, however, is quite naked and barren. At one time the population amounted to fifteen hundred souls, who lived very much on the produce of their stormy seas; but at present, we believe, it has fallen to about two-thirds of that number.

Inisboffin still contains several interesting memorials of St. Colman. The ruins of his ancient church are yet to be seen in the townland of Knock. There is also a holy well to the south-west of St. Colman's oratory, which is called _Tobar Flannain_, and takes its name from the patron saint of Killaloe, who spent a considerable time on the island, and was much venerated there. In the townland of Middle Quarter dwelt another recluse, who appears to have been a disciple of St. Colman; the site of his 'House' is still pointed out, and called in Irish--_Aittighe Guarim_--the place of Guarim's House. The celebrated Grace O'Malley, better known as Grana Weale, had a castle on the island, which has almost quite disappeared--but the place is still called _Dun-Graine_. In Cromwell's time the island was fortified, and became a kind of penal colony, in which many horrible atrocities were committed on the helpless Irish. The remnant who survived were crowded into ships, like African slaves, and transported to Barbadoes. Those who did not perish during the voyage soon succumbed beneath the broiling sun of the West Indian plantations. The islanders still remember, with a shudder, those terrible times.

It seems, however, that the Celts and Saxons did not get on amicably together even in St. Colman's time. The saints themselves will sometimes disagree; and, according to Bede, the Irish monks were much in fault. During the summer months, when the grain was to be sown, and reaped, and harvested, they wandered about in the neighbourhood--"through places with which they were acquainted"--coshering, in fact, upon their friends, and very likely pocketing such alms as they could get. But when the winter came, they returned to the monastery to eat what they had not sown nor helped to reap. It was too bad; and if it be true, and not the recital of some Anglo-Saxon returned to Yarrow from Connemara, one cannot blame the Saxon monks for objecting to such a state of things.

So Colman resolved to put the Saxon monks in a monastery by themselves, and make the Irishmen work for their living. He travelled about far and near to find a suitable place on the mainland for a monastery. At length he succeeded. He bought a small parcel of land from the 'earl' to whom it belonged--this is Bede's way of saying it--and got more, it seems, on condition that the monks residing there should pray to the Lord for him who let them have the place. "Then Colman, building the monastery with the help of the earl and all his neighbours, placed the English there, leaving the Scots in the aforesaid island. That monastery is to this day (A.D. 730) possessed by English inhabitants; being the same, that growing up from a small beginning, to be very large, is generally called Mageo (Magh eo); and as all things have long since been brought under a better method, it contains an exemplary society of monks, who are gathered there from the province of the English, and live by the labour of their hands, after the example of the venerable fathers, under a rule and canonical abbot, in much continency and singleness of life." The English monks were anxious, in fact, to get Home Rule, even in Ireland; and were, it seems, much the better of getting it. We shall presently return to the history of this monastery of Mayo.

Of Colman's further history we know nothing except the date of his death. Doubtless with his Celtic sympathies he preferred to live in his island retreat; although of course he visited from time to time the English monks of Mayo. But they had now got a 'canonical abbot' of their own, one elected by themselves and were, it seems, an entirely independent community. Their subsequent history shows that the monastery of Mayo, as Bede says, became a large establishment, and ultimately an episcopal See.

Colman's death is noticed by the Four Masters in A.D. 674; the _Annals of Ulster_ enter it under A.D. 675; but the true year appears to be A.D. 676--the ninth after his arrival in Inisboffin. All our martyrologies give his festival on the 8th of August. In the _Felire_ of Ængus he is set down as the "praiseworthy Colman of Inis-bo-finde;" and the scholiast describes that island as situated in the western sea off Connemara in the west of Connaught. There, too, he was buried.

Bede, while strongly dissenting from Colman's views on the Easter Question, bears noble testimony to his many virtues. He was much beloved, he says, by King Oswy, on account of his singular discretion. Then he adds that the place (Lindisfarne) he governed shows how frugal he and his predecessors were; how they despised earthly goods; and kept no money which they did not give to the poor; how their whole care was to serve God, not the world--to feed the soul, and not the belly. Hence the religious habit was then held in great veneration; the monk was joyfully received everywhere, and people from all quarters ran to get his blessing. When these Irish monks went into a village, it was either to preach, baptize, visit the sick, or otherwise take care of souls. They refused to endow their monasteries with lands or other possessions, content to preach the Gospel and to live by the labour of their hands, and the small alms of the faithful. It is not wonderful that they converted Northumbria, and that even in these unbelieving days of ours the memory of the Irish monks of Lindisfarne is still revered by men of all classes and of all creeds.

II.--ST. GERALD OF MAYO.

St. Gerald was in all probability the first 'canonical abbot' whom the Saxons of Mayo elected with the assent of Colman to preside over that famous monastery. There is a Life of this saint given by Colgan at the 13th of March, his festival day.[390] It was evidently not written for a considerable period after the saint's death; and although containing much that Lanigan calls 'sorry stuff,' it still furnishes us with some valuable information. The composition of the Life has been attributed to Augustin Magraidin, the compiler of the celebrated manuscript belonging to the Monastery of All Saints in Lough Ree. The substance of Magraidan's strange biography is as follows:--

Whilst Colman was Archbishop of Northumbria, the king of that or some neighbouring territory, Cusperius by name, sent his four sons to be educated under Colman's care at Lindisfarne. Their names were Gerald, Balanus, Berikertus and Hubritanus or Hulbritanus. The queen, their mother, was called Benitia. And here, by way of parenthesis, we may observe that it is not a little remarkable to find the names of these holy brothers in our domestic martyrologies. Balloin of Tech-Saxon (in the co. Mayo) is given in the _Martyrology of Donegal_ on the 3rd of September; Beretchert of Tolach-leis is given at the 6th of December; and Huildbriti at the 24th of April, is given both by Marianus O'Gorman and the _Martyrology of Tallaght_. The four brothers were instructed by Colman in the liberal arts, in theology, and in monastic discipline, and seem to have become greatly attached to their master.

It is said that Gerald became Abbot of Winton before Colman's departure from Lindisfarne. When these four brothers saw how the kings and clergy of Northumbria rejected the discipline and authority of Colman, they resolved to leave their native country and accompany their beloved master to Ireland. There was nothing to detain them in England. Their mother was dead, and their father, it seems, entered on a career of crime, which hastened their departure. And so, says the Life, embarking in their fleet of ships, or rather boats, and taking with them all necessaries, they set sail and landed at the 'mouth of the Shannon in Connaught.'[391] The subsequent narrative, however, shows that it is much more probable that they landed at the mouth of the river Moy near Killala, for it is in that district we find them shortly after their arrival.

It was nothing new or strange for English princes and nobles to go to Ireland to be educated at this period. It is fortunate that on this point we have the unexceptional testimony of Bede himself. "Many of the nobility, and of the lower ranks of the English nation were there (in Ireland) at that time (when the pestilence broke out), who, in the days of the Bishops Finan and Colman, forsaking their native island, retired thither either for the sake of divine studies, or of a more continent life; and some of them at once devoted themselves to a monastic life; others chose rather to apply themselves to study, going about from one master's cell to another. The Irish (Scoti) willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with food, and also to furnish them with books to read, and their teaching gratis."[392]

It seems that the west of Ireland was, especially after the return of Colman, a favourite place of refuge for these Saxon scholars. In fact we find in all our native annals that the sons of Gartnait, King of the Picts, with the people of Sketh (probably Skye), made a voyage to Ireland in the very same year, according to the _Ulster Annals_, that Colman sailed for Inisbofinde. Their return to Scotland two years later is also mentioned, which shows that they spent at least two years, most probably in the West of Ireland, with Colman.

Whether or not St. Gerald and his brothers accompanied St. Colman to Ireland is doubtful. The narrative in the Life would seem to imply that they came straight to Ireland after Colman's departure from Lindisfarne, and that during the time he remained in Iona Gerald and his companions had founded the monastery of Elitheria, or 'The Pilgrims Home,' as we might call it. At first, it seems, they met with some opposition from a certain wicked ruler in the district, called Ailill, who sent an armed force to oppose their landing. This was in all probability Ailill, or Oilioll, son of Dunchadh of Murrisk, prince of the Hy-Fiachrach, and ancestor of the O'Dowds. Dunchadh himself was slain in A.D. 681; but his son, Oilioll, might well be of age and a ruler of a separate territory in A.D. 664 or 665. He was prince of Tirawley; and hence it is highly probable that it was either at Killala or in the Bay of Westport that the Saxon pilgrims landed. By a wondrous miracle Gerald disarmed the hostility of Ailill, and even induced him to grant them the site of a monastery which, in the Life, is called Elitheria, or the Field of the Stag, from the Irish _Elith_, a stag. Colgan, however, thinks it more probable that the place received its name from _elitheir_, a pilgrim. This locality has not been identified. It is evident, however, that it was not far from the banks of the Moy, for prince Ailill, seeing the wonders wrought by St. Gerald, asked him to remove a rock from the bed of that river which was a great impediment to navigation, and tore the fishermen's nets when they were draughting the river for salmon. In this, also, Gerald gratified the prince, and caused the rock to be broken in fragments. No doubt this occurred somewhere between Killala and Ballina.

Here the writer of Gerald's Life is guilty of a great anachronism, for he says that Raghallach (Ragallus), the celebrated King of Connaught, hearing of the fame of St. Gerald, invited the latter to come to his court, and promised also to give him land for founding a monastery; adding that afterwards he fulfilled this promise, and gave him the ground on which the monastery of Mayo was built. Now Raghallach, or Reilly, King of Connaught, was slain in A.D. 645, as the Four Masters say, or in A.D. 648, according to the _Annals of Ulster_, that is, nearly twenty years before Gerald came to Ireland. The King of Connaught, when Mayo was founded, was Cennfaeladh, son of Colgu, whose death is notified by the Four Masters, A.D. 680. Besides, Bede expressly says that it was Colman himself who procured the site of the Mayo monastery, partly for money and partly for the prayers of the community.

We are then told that Gerald divided this community into three sections. One party he sent back to England in order to procure all things necessary for the new monastery. A second division was told off to build the dun or cashel--murus it is called in the Latin Life--around the monastery. The third division was, meantime, employed in the celebration of the Divine Offices for themselves and for the people around them.

We are then told that Gerald of Mayo, and all the other heads of religious houses in Ireland, went to Tara in obedience to an edict of the joint kings, Diarmaid and Blathmac, who reigned from A.D. 658 to 664 or 666. The purpose of the kings in summoning this meeting seems to have been to devise some means of staying the dreadful plague and its attendant famine which were then ravaging the country. St. Fechin and St. Gerald are represented as divided in opinion; the former said the plague was sent by God to prevent the people from starving, and that they must have perished either way, seeing that the country was over populated. But St. Gerald, like many other well-meaning people, put his trust in God, and said that all the clergy should pray to God to stop the plague, and also to supply food for the starving people. Divine Providence, he said, could do both one and the other; but it seems there was no human help to save them. The plague, however, soon solved the problem; it spared none--saints, kings, and people alike perished, so that half the population of the land disappeared in two years. St. Gerald himself escaped, and saved many others by his gift of healing; but his sister, Segresia, and one hundred of her nuns, who, it seems, had a convent close to Elitheria, with fifty of the monks of that establishment, all perished.

It is certain that St. Gerald was alive until A.D. 697, for we are told that about that time St. Adamnan, the celebrated Abbot of Iona, paid him a visit at the convent of Mayo. We know that Adamnan in that year went to Ireland, and promulged the celebrated 'Lex Innocentiae,' by which women were forbidden to share the dangers of the battlefield. We know, too, that he founded the Church of Skreen in Hy-Fiachrach, probably about the same time; and if he were in that neighbourhood nothing is more natural than that he should visit the foundation of Colman, whom he must have known in his youth, and try to ascertain how the Saxon monastery, which he had planted, was progressing in the land of the Scots. He seems to have remained, too, a considerable time in Ireland, or very soon returned thither, for in A.D. 703 he celebrated the Roman Easter (Canonicum Pascha) 'in Hibernia.'[393] It is even stated that he ruled the monastery of Mayo for seven years after the death of Gerald himself, and during that time was engaged in writing books, casting bells, and teaching the monks, until he returned to die in his own monastery of Iona. This is not 'manifestly a figment,' as has been said by some writers; there is nothing at all improbable in it, especially if St. Gerald did not live after A.D. 697, as Colgan thinks.

The chief difficulty arises from the fact that the death of St. Gerald seems to be recorded at a much later date. The Four Masters record it, A.D. 726, "Gerald of Magh Eo died on the 13th of March." The _Annals of Ulster_ record the same event, A.D. 731. "The Pontiff of Magh Eo of the Saxons, Gerald, died." It is alleged, however, that the words 'Pontifex Magh Eo of the Saxons' should be connected with the previous entry, which would then read thus: "Bellum Connacht in quo cecidit Muredach Mac Indrechtaigh pontifex Maighe Eo Saxonum." The critics say, however, that the mistake was made by the Four Masters, who connect it in this way, and that Gerald, not Muredach Mac Indrechtaigh, was the Pontiff referred to. If Gerald really lived to this date, he must have been at least ninety years of age when he died in his monastery of Mayo. It is, at all events, certain that he died there, and his fame as a saint and scholar both during his life, and long afterwards, was the means of attracting crowds of students both from Erin and Saxonland, to the great monastic school, which he founded in the plains of Mayo.

There is a local tradition that King Alfred the Great visited Mayo, and that he sent his son to be trained up in that monastery, but that the young prince died there, and some of the natives even undertake to point out the place where he was buried. It is very likely this tradition had its origin in the undoubted visit to Ireland, and most probably to Mayo also, of King Aldfrid of Northumbria. He was an intimate friend of Adamnan, and probably accompanied that saint to Ireland. William of Malmesbury states expressly that he spent his youth in Ireland, and if so, it was most likely at Mayo.

III.--SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL OF MAYO.

Of the subsequent history of this great monastic school we know very little.

Aedhan, Bishop of Magh Eo, died A.D. 768 (F.M.); and the monastery was burned in A.D. 778 (_recte_ 783) by lightning, "on Saturday night, precisely on the 4th of the Nones of August. That night was terrible with thunder and lightning, and wind-storms," which destroyed Armagh and Clonbroney, as well as the monastery of Mayo. Probably all these edifices were then built of wood. It is said that Turgesius, the Dane, attacked and plundered the monastery in A.D. 818; but of this pillage we can find no record, except in the _Life of St. Gerald_, which is no authority for dates. In A.D. 805 (but really in A.D. 808), the Four Masters say the oratory of Mayo was again burned.

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries frequent mention is made of Mayo; and it seems that during this period a bishop usually dwelt in the monastery, who exercised jurisdiction over the surrounding parishes.

It appears to have been regarded as a holy place to be buried in, for we are told that Domhnall, son of Turlough O'Conor, Lord of North Connaught, "the glory, and the moderator, and the good adviser of the Irish people," died in A.D. 1176, and was interred at Mayo of the Saxons (F.M.).

In A.D. 1209 is recorded the death of "Cele O'Duffy, Bishop of Magh Eo of the Saxons," which shows that at this period it was recognised as a diocese long after the Synod of Kells, in A.D. 1152. O'Donovan, in a note to this entry, observes that although Colgan translates Magh Eo, the plain of the "Oaks," it more probably means the plain of the "Yews."

This O'Duffy was a member of the celebrated family of that name, which during the twelfth century produced the most distinguished ecclesiastics in the province of Connaught. They were not merely prelates and scholars, but liberal patrons of the fine arts as they were known at the time. To them we owe the beautiful processional cross of Cong, the gem of Irish metal-work. From a very early period they were connected with the School of Clonmacnoise, and afterwards with the School of Tuam; but the monastery of Cong seems to have been their favourite dwelling-place when living, and resting-place when dead. Cong was made a diocese at the Synod of Rathbreasil in A.D. 1110. The monastery was burned A.D. 1114; it was then probably that the beautiful building was erected, whose picturesque ruins have charmed every visitor to that remote district. In the base of the market cross of Cong we find an inscription, probably of the 13th century, asking a prayer for "Nichol and for Gilleberd O'Duffy, who was in the Abbacy of Cong," and who doubtless caused this cross, the "symbol of their faith and hope," to be erected in the square of their monastic city. In A.D. 1150 Muireadhach O'Duffy, Archbishop of Connaught, "the chief senior of all Ireland in wisdom, in chastity, and in the bestowal of jewels and food, died at Cong." In A.D. 1168, Flanagan O'Duffy, "Bishop and chief doctor of the Irish in literature, history, and poetry, and in every kind of science known to man in his time, died at Cong, in the bed of Muireadach O'Duffy." Catholicus O'Duffy, Archbishop of Tuam, was the most distinguished man of his time. He was present, at the Council of Lateran in A.D. 1179, and died in A.D. 1201.

In A.D. 1236 MacWilliam (Burke) went to Mayo of the Saxons, then, it seems, under the protection of 'King' Felim O'Conor, "and he left neither rick nor basket of corn in the large church-enclosure of Mayo, or in the yard of the church of St. Michael the Archangel, and he carried away eighty baskets out of the churches themselves." These yards adjoining the churches seem to have been used as haggards by the monks for storing their corn, and were completely pillaged by MacWilliam. Yet the monks still continued to live in the midst of the perpetual strife which desolated the Province of Connaught during the next century; for in A.D. 1478--a comparatively recent period--the death of Bishop Higgins of Mayo of the Saxons is recorded.

It is difficult to ascertain exactly when the See of Mayo was annexed to Tuam. Christopher Bodkin was Archbishop of Tuam, "although he took the oath of allegiance to the Queen,"[394] from A.D. 1555 to A.D. 1572. David Wolf, in a letter to the Holy See from Limerick, October 12th, 1561, says that Bodkin held besides Tuam the Sees of "Duacensis, Enachdunensis, et Mayonensis;" but he (Bodkin) says--"the two last were united to Tuam long ago." There is, however, every reason to believe that Bodkin was a time-server, and a see-grabber, for not content with the four sees mentioned, he also claimed the Diocese of Clonfert. Bodkin might, however, with some show of reason say that "Mayo was annexed to Tuam long ago." So early as the year A.D. 1217, there was a letter addressed on this subject by Pope Honorius III. delegating the Bishop of Clogher, the Abbot of Kells, and the Archdeacon of Ardagh, to report on this very question. The then Archbishop of Tuam, Felix O'Ruadan, asserted that Mayo was not a cathedral, but a parochial church. The Archdeacon of Mayo appealed against a decision to that effect given by Innocent III., on the ground that it was surreptitiously obtained, and the decision was withdrawn. Afterwards, it seems, the Archdeacon in a collusive suit allowed judgment to go against himself and his church. This being discovered at Rome, the Pope ordered the aforesaid judges to summon all the parties before them, and having heard all the witnesses, to send a full report of the entire case to the Apostolic See.[395] Unfortunately we do not know the issue; but it is evident that the Archbishops of Tuam during the troubles of subsequent centuries were able to assert their own jurisdiction; and so the Canons of Mayo lost their status as Canons of a Cathedral Church. About this period, too, many of the parishes belonging to the ancient See of Mayo around Clew Bay were claimed by the Archbishop of Armagh on the ground that they were founded by St. Patrick.[396] The claim was to some extent allowed by Innocent III.; but afterwards it fell into abeyance, and the jurisdiction of Tuam was recognised over all these Patrician churches of the ancient diocese of Mayo.

There are still considerable ruins of the ancient monastery at Mayo, but the buildings do not appear to have dated back to the original foundation by St. Colman, who, doubtless, built his monastery in the old Irish style.

IV.--THE SCHOOL OF TUAM.

The School of Tuam belongs to the earliest period of Irish ecclesiastical history; and the School of Tuam belongs also to the latest, and best period of Celtic art. We shall consider it in both respects--first as a school of Sacred Science under St. Jarlath, and then, along with Clonmacnoise, as a school of Sacred Art in the eleventh century, just before the advent of the Anglo-Normans to Ireland.

Of St. Jarlath himself unfortunately we know very little, for no Life of the saint has been discovered. His name is not mentioned in our Annals, and hence we are dependent for such information as we possess on isolated passages having reference to him in the Lives of other saints. Colgan has collected these meagre notices together; and was thus enabled to furnish us with a brief sketch of the life of this eminent saint.[397]

Jarlath belonged to the race known as the Conmaicne. They are so called because their common ancestor was Conmac, son of the celebrated Fergus Mac Roy, so famous during the heroic period of Irish history. The descendants of Conmac were lords of a considerable territory in the province of Connaught, and gave their name to several well-known districts. In North Connaught they were known as the Conmaicne of Moyrein in Leitrim and Cavan, with Fenagh as their ecclesiastical city, and St. Caillin as their patron saint. In West Connaught they were divided into three families or branches--the Conmaicne Mara, of the Sea, who have given their name to the modern Connemara; the Conmaicne Cuil-Tola, who occupied the present barony of Kilmaine in the County Mayo, and the Conmaicne Chineal-Dubhain, who dwelt around Dunmore in the County Galway. Tuam is in the barony of Dunmore, or at least on its borders, and so we may assume that Jarlath belonged to the Conmaicne of Dunmore, for the Irish saints generally founded their churches in their own tribe-land. His father's name was Loga (or Lugha), "of the race of Conmac, son of Fergus, son of Ross, son of Rudhraighe from whom the Clanna Rudhraighe are called, and Mongfinn, daughter of Ciardubhan, of the Cinel Cinnenn was his mother."[398]

St. Benen or Benignus, as we have already seen, was, before he became Coadjutor to St. Patrick in Armagh, assigned by that saint to be in an especial manner the apostle of Conmaicne. Hence he founded the Church of Kilbannon which still bears his name, a little to the north-west of Tuam, in the very heart of their territory. But he did more. He undertook himself to train up two young clerics to be future bishops of Conmaicne, when he should be called away by death or by other duties. These two young men were Jarlath of the Western Conmaicne, and Caillin of the Conmaicne of Moyrein. We are told in his Life that he not only educated these young men in all knowledge human and divine, but also promoted them to Holy Orders, and founded and consecrated churches for them, so that they might continue his work without interruption.

St. Benignus died in A.D. 468,[399] and hence we must assume that Jarlath was then at least twenty-five years of age, and was probably something more. The first church of St. Jarlath was founded at Cluainfois (Cloonfush), about two miles to the west of Tuam. There is still, as I myself can testify, a vivid tradition at Cluainfois of conferences held there between the three saints--Benen, Jarlath, and Caillin. The old round tower of Kilbannon can be distinctly seen from Cluainfois, a little to the north, and whether the conferences were held there or at Cluainfois, there could be no difficulty in the saints frequently meeting, and holding converse on those weighty questions in scripture and theology, which they loved to discuss together. The tradition is that they were generally held at Cluainfois, and the name itself implies as much--it is according to Colgan the 'Meadow of Retreat,' as we should say, or 'Locus commorationis,' as Colgan calls it. This is still more probable, if with some writers we place the death of Benen in A.D. 476, ten years later than the date assigned in the _Annals of Ulster_.[400]

The place still deserves its ancient name. It is indeed a Meadow of Retreat. The old churchyard which alone marks at present the site of the ancient College of Cluainfois, stands on the southern slope of a rich and wide grazing farm, now tenanted by sheep and heifers alone. The old causeway to the church can still be traced, though much overgrown with grass. A solitary ash-tree rises over the narrow homes of the dead; but there is no trace of the ancient church, except a portion of its foundations, now remaining. Like most of the sites of our ancient monasteries, the spot was admirably chosen on the southern slope of fertile swelling fields, overlooking a wide prospect to the south and west, with the Clare river quietly stealing through the low-lying meadows to the south, and showing here and there reaches of its waters gleaming in the sunlight. One thing at least our monks of old greatly loved, and that was water. They loved it in all its various forms--whether it was the great sea, or the quiet lake, or the murmuring stream--they never built a monastery except close to water in one way or another. This love for natural beauty seems to have disappeared in modern times. It must be said, however, that in old times the monks had sites of their own choice; but in our times we must be thankful if we can get any site at all to build upon. We venture to think, however, it would be almost better to wait, than to erect a noble building in some unsightly hole, or swampy flat, where noisome vapours too often infect the atmosphere, and the glorious vision of nature's beauties is as completely cut off as if the inmates dwelt in a jail.

Jarlath's College of Cluainfois soon became very celebrated, and attracted, especially towards the close of the fifth century, scholars from the most distant parts of Ireland. Two especially, as Colgan remarks, became even more eminent than their master. One was St. Brendan of Ardfert and Clonfert, the other was St. Colman of Cloyne.

We are told that Brendan, burning with a love of the Holy Scriptures, and ardently desiring to see with his own eyes the virtuous example of the sainted fathers of the young churches of Ireland, asked permission of his master St. Erc, and of his foster-mother St. Ita, to leave his native mountains in Kerry and travel through Ireland. First of all he came to St. Jarlath's School at Cluainfois, for he had heard much of the fame of that great and holy master. On his way it seems he met Colman, son of Senin, and induced him to give up his worldly life, and devote himself to the service of God. With this view the latter accompanied Brendan on his journey to Western Connaught. St. Jarlath received them kindly, and we are told that they remained with him a considerable time drinking in deep draughts at this fountain of sacred knowledge. But Brendan, though still very young, probably not more than twenty years of age, had already made great progress in virtue, and was highly favoured by God. In the spirit of prophecy which he possessed, he told St. Jarlath that Cluainfois was not destined by God to be the place of his resurrection. He was to move a little further eastward, and he was to remain at the place where the wheel of his car would break on the journey. "Remain there," said Brendan, "and build your oratory, for God wills that there shall be the place of your resurrection, and many shall arise in glory in the same place along with you." The holy old man obeyed this manifestation of the Divine will; the chariot wheel was broken at the place _now_ called Tuam da guallan, and there the saint built his church on the site of the old Cathedral of Tuam, which has for so many centuries become the metropolitan Church of Connaught. At the same time St. Jarlath said to Brendan, "O holy youth, it is you should be master, and I the pupil--but go now with God's blessing elsewhere." And so Brendan with the blessing of God and St. Jarlath left Cluainfois, and shortly after, having returned to his native Kerry, was ordained a priest by his first master, the holy Bishop Erc, before he died. If this was St. Erc of Slaine, who died in A.D. 512, St. Brendan must have been at the School of Cluainfois some time between A.D. 504 and that date.

It is difficult to ascertain the exact date of St. Jarlath's death. As he was a disciple of St. Benignus he cannot have been born after A.D. 460. He seems to have been an aged man when Brendan was at Cluainfois--certainly not less than sixty years of age. He is ranked, however, amongst the saints of the Second Order; and hence it is assumed that he must have lived until A.D. 540, when he would be about ninety years of age. It is well known, however, that in those days these holy men, leading active and abstemious lives, frequently lived on in the enjoyment of all their faculties to a very great age--even beyond a hundred years. It is eating and drinking too much that shortens life, rather than eating and drinking too little. St. Jarlath especially was remarkable for the extreme asceticism of his life. Prayer and sacred study were his chief food; his diet was so meagre that he seemed to have no body. He was fond of meditation and watching and the scholiast in the _Felire_ of Ængus tells us that he made three hundred genuflections by day and three hundred every night, so that his whole life was one continued prayer.

A Prophecy concerning his successors in the See of Tuam, written in Irish, has been attributed to St. Jarlath. Nothing is known of its existence at present; but it seems to have been extant when Colgan wrote. Its authenticity, however, is very doubtful; and it appears to belong to a class of documents composed many centuries later than the alleged time, but which, to lend them authority, are falsely attributed to the famous saints of the early Irish Church.

The relics of St. Jarlath were for a long time preserved in Tuam with great reverence. A special church, close to the Cathedral, was built for the scrinium, or shrine, containing the precious treasures, hence called _Tempull na Scrin_; but at present there is, we believe, no trace of the church, or of the shrine itself to be found anywhere. Both the Church of the Shrine and St. Jarlath's ancient Cathedral were built on the site of the present Protestant Cathedral of Tuam. The new and beautiful Catholic Cathedral occupies a fine site at some distance on the other side of the highway.

After the death of St. Jarlath we hear scarcely anything of Tuam for nearly five hundred years. For the first two hundred and fifty years no reference whatsoever is made to the City of St. Jarlath; but in A.D. 776 the Four Masters record the death of "Nuada O'Bolcan, abbot of Tuaim Daolann."[401] The true date is, however, A.D. 781; and it is strange that the _Annals of Ulster_ record in the same year the death of Ferdomnach of Tuaim da Ghualann, without any epithet designating his office. No reference, however, is made to either as bishop.

In A.D. 969, Eoghan O'Cleirigh, 'Bishop of Connaught,' died. The reference here is probably to a prelate resident at Tuam, for in A.D. 1085 Aedh O'Hoisin, whose death is entered under that year, is described by the Four Masters as comarb of Jarlath, and High-bishop (ard-epscoip) of Tuam. This is the first distinct reference to a Bishop of Tuam since the decease of St. Jarlath.

From this period, however, the prelates of Tuam appear prominently in the history of the western province. Just at this time the O'Conor family reached a high degree of power, and retained it for three generations over the entire province. There was a long and bitter struggle between that family and the O'Brians of Kincora for the pre-eminence, which continued for nearly a hundred years. After the death of Turlough O'Brian, King of Ireland 'with opposition,' in A.D. 1085, the O'Conors gained the ascendency. Turlough Mor O'Conor was the most powerful prince in Ireland for fifty years, from A.D. 1106 to his death in A.D. 1156. He is described by the Four Masters as King of all Ireland, but 'with opposition.' They add that "Turlough Mor O'Conor was the flood of the glory and splendour of Ireland, the Augustus of the West of Europe, a man full of charity and mercy, hospitality and chivalry: and he died after the sixty-eighth year of his age, and was interred at Clonmacnoise, beside the altar of Ciaran, after having made his will, and distributed gold and silver, cows and horses, amongst the clergy and churches of Ireland in general." We shall see presently, when treating of Celtic art in Clonmacnoise and the West of Ireland, that if Turlough was not the Augustus of the West of Europe, he was certainly the Augustus of the West of Ireland. He was succeeded without opposition by his degenerate son, Rory O'Conor, the last monarch of Ireland.