CHAPTER XXIV.

GAEDHLIC SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS OF ANCIENT ERIN.

"The Gaedhlic tongue! the Gaedhlic tongue! why should its voice be still, When all its magic tones with old and golden glories thrill-- When, like an aged bard, it sings departed warriors' might-- When it was heard in kingly halls, where thronged the brave and bright; When oft its glowing tales of war made dauntless hearts beat high-- When oft its tales of hapless love drew tears from beauty's eye?" --_Anonymous._

Hitherto we have spoken chiefly of the monastic schools, and the clerical scholars of ancient Erin. We are not to assume, however, that the Gaedhlic tongue was not cultivated in those schools, and that the eminent saints of ancient Erin were not excellent Gaedhlic scholars. We know for certain that the contrary was the fact. Several of them, like Columcille, were eminent Gaedhlic poets; many of them, like St. Carthach of Lismore, even wrote their monastic Rules in Gaedhlic; and, of course, even scholars, like Adamnan, who wrote learned treatises in the Latin tongue, must have preached the Gospel, and taught the people in the vernacular language. St. Patrick himself, who was a Briton, found it necessary to do so, and, as far as we can judge, he must have been an accomplished speaker in the ancient Gaedhlic tongue.

Still the monastic schools were more given to the cultivation of the classical languages than to the study of the Gaedhlic; and when their great scholars wished to deal with theological or scientific subjects, they wrote in the Latin language. Even some of our Annalists, when they wished to give special prominence to their entries, wrote in the Latin rather than in the Gaedhlic.

At the same time, we are not to suppose that during this period there were no Gaedhlic schools in the sense in which we now speak of English as opposed to Classical schools--that is, academies in which the Gaedhlic language, and literature, and history were the subjects chiefly, if not exclusively, taught. On the contrary, we have abundant evidence that there were several schools of this character, in which the vernacular language was cultivated with great success, and not merely the language, but also the history, the antiquities, the laws, and the literature of the nation.

We are even inclined to think that in Celtic Ireland the vernacular language was more carefully cultivated during this period, and that laymen generally had better opportunities of obtaining what would now be called a university education, than they had in any other country of western Europe. This statement is, in our opinion, capable of clear proof from existing monuments; but for the present we need not go beyond the admitted facts that both clerics and laymen from the Continent came to the schools of Erin in large numbers, to acquire the culture of our Celtic schools; whilst on the other hand, when our Irish scholars went abroad during the ninth and tenth centuries, they were at once entrusted with the highest offices in the Continental schools, and proved themselves to be, not only amongst the ablest theologians of the time, but also the first men of that age in Greek and Latin Literature. The history of men like Virgilius, and Dungal, and John Scotus Erigena, proves the truth of this statement beyond denial or controversy.

The Lives of the Saints furnish materials for the history of our monastic schools; but our lay scholars, having no such records of their lives and learning, are forgotten, except in so far as some treatise, or fragment of a treatise, of their composition may have survived the wreck of time.

We find, however, from references in the Brehon Laws, that lay Schools and lay Professors occupied a recognised and honourable position in the social polity of the time.

I.--ORGANIZATION OF THE GAEDHLIC PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS.

In the Sequel, or Second Part, of the _Crith Gabhlach_ the legal rights and social position of the Professors of the Liberal Arts are set down with a considerable degree of fulness and accuracy. We are aware that it has been said[441] that these, and some other portions of the _Crith Gabhlach_ "are the fantastic production of an antiquarian lawyer of a strong ecclesiastical bias." It is hardly necessary to question the competency of this writer to pronounce such an opinion. He appears to have been wholly unacquainted with the Irish language, and obviously has only a lawyer's knowledge of our ancient Annals. For those very things, regarding the orders, rights, and privileges of the Church, which he so coolly describes as the fantastic production of a lawyer with an ecclesiastical bias, are shown in every page of our Annals to be amongst the recognised institutions of the Celtic tribes in Erin. It is, in fact, quite clear that he admits only as authentic laws those which seem to harmonise with his own pre-conceived notions of ecclesiastical polity; but those which do not fit in with these pre-conceived views, he rejects as fantastic! Such is the critical faculty of some of those to whom the publication of the Brehon Laws has been entrusted.

In this Sequel to the _Crith Gabhlach_,[442] 'profession' is set down as one of the things which give social status in Erin. And, as in the Church, and amongst the land-owning classes, there were several grades, so there were also amongst the professional classes. These grades are set down as seven; but it is not easy for us to realise the degrees of gradation between them, since that state of society has totally passed away; as surely it would be difficult in similar circumstances to discriminate between the various grades in the learned professions that exist amongst ourselves to-day. It would not be easy for us to explain for the Maoris how those entitled to write after their names A.B., or M.A., or LL.D. differ amongst themselves; or in what the Q.C. is superior to the Stuff Gown; and the same difficulty will be found to exist in all the degrees, whether academical or professional, on which men set so much value at present.

In like manner, in ancient Erin, the 'seven grades of wisdom' are carefully distinguished by law, although it is not easy for us in every case to perceive the point of the distinction.

There was a High-professor (_rosai_), and a simple Professor (_sai_); there was an _anruth_ and a _sruth_, that is, a 'noble stream' and a 'stream,' which, in our opinion, have not been at all explained; there was an 'illustrator,' and an 'interrogator,' and a 'pupil'--or, as we should now call them, a grinder, and a tutor, and an undergraduate. The High-professor was also called an _ollamh_ and a _sai litre_, that is in modern parlance a LL.D. (speaking of laymen), and a Doctor of Literature. The most important point is that the Ollave was entitled to sit at the king's table as an honoured guest. In point of knowledge he was qualified to answer all questions in the four great departments of learning--that is, in poetry, literature, history, and, like a LL.D., in canon and civil law.

He was entitled to bring four-and-twenty persons in his retinue, or peripatetic school; and neither he nor they could be denied food without incurring a severe penalty--one-seventh of his death-eric. One of his functions and rights was to be 'in the bosom of his disciples,' always imparting knowledge to them on all suitable occasions.

The _anruth_, or 'noble stream,' was only entitled to half this company, but in other respects he was supposed to be a junior Ollave or Fellow--in the number of his intellectual gifts, in the eloquence of his language, the greatness of his knowledge, and the nobility of his teaching--but he had not yet reached the 'pinnacle' of knowledge, like the full-blown Ollave.

We cannot now discuss at greater length the various other sub-divisions, both amongst masters and pupils, which were almost as numerous as in the Intermediate Schools and Royal University--all put together, including the Senators, Fellows, Teaching-Examiners, and Graduates.

The learned professions were, in like manner, carefully discriminated and sub-divided. Leaving out the Church, it seems that there were at this period three great lay professions--Poetry, Law, and History. Poetry (_filidecht_), generally gets precedence; and the Ollave-poet seems to have been at the very top of the learned professions. The 'bard' at this period is distinguished from the 'poet.' The former is described as a man "without lawful learning but his own intellect;"[443] that is a man who had from nature the gift of music and of song, but who was never regularly trained, and never graduated in the School of Poetry. Not so the _file_ or poet. He was trained in all the mysteries of the various kinds of Gaedhlic verse; he could compose _extempore_ or in writing; he knew the legal number of recognised poems and tales, and was pronounced qualified to recite them before kings and chieftains, whether in the banquet hall, or on the battle-march. He could eulogise, too, and satirise; and he and all his company were entitled both to fees and refection.

The course in poetry extended over 'twelve years of hard work;'[444] and besides the knowledge of the seven kinds of verse, in each of which the Ollave-poet was supposed to be able to compose extemporaneously, he was also required to know seven times fifty tales by heart for public recitation. These tales were of a wild and romantic character, but for that very reason were highly popular with all classes in ancient Erin. They included tales of Battles, Voyages, Cattle-spoils, Sieges, Sorrows, Slaughters, and so on, through the lost list of the legendary poems of Erin. Fortunately many of them still survive in manuscript, and a few have been published; which even in faulty translations are found to be exceedingly interesting and amusing. It was, doubtless, the popular and entertaining character of these romantic stories that placed the Ollave-poet at the head of the learned professions, even on an equality with kings and bishops in point of social dignity. There were seven grades or degrees in this great fraternity, from the _fochloc_, or scholar-poet, up to the great Ollave himself, who was the head of the school, or band of twenty-four that formed his train.

In like manner with the Brehons, there was an Ollave-Brehon who corresponded with a judge of the High Court in our own times; and then there were seven grades of inferior brehonship, descending from this high official to the raw law student, who was just beginning to take out his lectures and eat his dinners--for, in ancient, as in modern Erin, the lawyers made eating an essential part of their professional career. The fees of the Brehon were fixed by law, and to withhold them was a grave offence, for which a distress might be levied after an interval of three days.[445]

Whoever looks over, even in a cursory way, the four large volumes of the ancient Brehon code already published, will readily admit that to be an accomplished lawyer in ancient Erin required long and careful study under competent masters. At length the system grew so intricate and complicated that the Brehonship was confined to a few families, who transmitted from generation to generation the key to the interpretation both of the written and customary law. Every _righ_ was entitled to have his own Brehon, who sat on stated days, generally in the open air, for the adjudication of all the causes arising in the tribe. The litigants might, of course, have their own advocates, but they were generally young Brehons of inferior degree belonging to the school of the chief Brehon. Amongst these legal families the MacEgans of Duniry in Galway, and Ormond in Tipperary, became the most celebrated, so that members of that family were employed as judges by most of the kinglets beyond the Shannon.

The Historical Poets or Chroniclers seem to have constituted a separate professional class in Ireland during this period. O'Donnell, in a passage from the Irish Life of St. Columba, clearly defines their duties, and he must have known them well, for the O'Clerys, his own hereditary Chroniclers, were the most illustrious members of that profession that ever appeared in Erin. It was their duty to record--(_a_) the achievements, wars, and triumphs of the kings, princes, and chiefs; (_b_) to preserve the genealogies and define the rights of noble families; (_c_) to ascertain and set forth the limits and extent of the sub-kingdoms and territories ruled over by the princes and chiefs. There is no statement in the Brehon Code as to the duties of the Chronicler so definite as this, because the code supposes that these things were perfectly well known to all the Feni, from their own daily experience.

In the earlier periods of our history these important duties were discharged by the Bards; but by degrees it was found more convenient to confine them to a separate class, which afterwards, like the Brehons, came to be hereditary. As the _righ_ was entitled to have his Bard and Brehon, so also he was entitled to have his Chronicler to discharge those duties to which we have referred above. Up to the eleventh century the Chronicles were written in verse, but after that period they began to be written in prose; and in many cases they are written both in prose and verse--the verse being nearly always the older form of the Chronicle.

Many of these Rhyming Chroniclers record merely the local history of their own chieftains; but in other cases the poet-historian took a wider scope, and gave a narrative not only of Irish history, but of universal history, in a brief way, down to the time of St. Patrick. Most of these Chroniclers were laymen, although several of the most distinguished amongst them were monks or priests in some of the great monastic schools.

It is quite clear from various references both in our Annals, and in the Brehon Code, that these three professions were kept quite distinct from the sixth to the twelfth century, that they were taught by different professors, and in different schools--these professors being generally but not always laymen.

Perhaps the earliest school of this character to which we find any definite reference is the School of Tuaim Drecain. It is doubtless only one of many similar institutions that flourished in ancient Ireland, but as we have more accurate information, although incidental, concerning this establishment, we propose to give an account of this typical seminary in a separate section.

II.--THE SCHOOL OF TUAIM DRECAIN.

St. Bricin's School of Tuaim Drecain is one of those mentioned in O'Curry's catalogue of celebrated schools in ancient Ireland. Moreover, although its founder and rector was a saint, whose festival is found marked in our martyrologies, it seems to have been a lay school of general literature, or, as we should say, a school of arts rather than of scripture or theology. It has besides produced one very distinguished Irish poet, some scraps of whose writings have come down to us, and therefore deserves a special notice at our hands.

Its founder is described in the _Martyrology of Donegal_ (5th Sept.) as "Bricin of Tuaim Drecain, in Breifne of Connaught; but it is in Breifne Ui Raghallaigh it is, and he was of the race of Tadhg, son of Cian, son of Ollioll Olum." We find off-shoots of that race of Tadhg, son of Cian, in Bregia, and in Leyney, county Sligo, and elsewhere also, but to which branch of the race he belonged we are not informed.

Tuaim Drecain is now called Tomregan, which very nearly represents the pronunciation of the Irish word. It is a parish situated partly in three baronies and in the two counties of Cavan and Fermanagh, where the Woodford river, after draining several of the Leitrim lakes, flows on to join the river Erne, near Belturbet. The name signifies the tomb or grave of Drecan, some ancient warrior of whom nothing is known. It would, however, be interesting to know if there is any tumulus, or stone circle, in the parish which might help to explain the origin of the name. We know from the _Annals of the Four Masters_ that Eochaidh Faebhar-glas, King of Ireland, from A.M. 3707 to 3727, fought a battle at Tuaim Drecon; and it was probably from the tumulus raised over Drecon on this occasion that the place got its name.

St. Bricin flourished during the early years of the seventh century, and, besides his other scholarly acquirements, it seems he had also some knowledge of medicine. Amongst his pupils the most celebrated was Cennfaeladh the 'learned,' who in his youth had been a distinguished soldier, and took part in the great battle of Magh Rath (now Moira, co. Down), which was fought in the year A.D. 634. On that fatal field he received a very dangerous wound in the head, which was very near bringing his learned career to a premature close. He was, however, carried off from the battle field, and taken to Armagh, whence Senach the Primate, sent him to Tomregan, that he might have the benefit of the surgical skill of Bricin. The saint succeeded in healing the wound in the poet's head, although he had actually lost through the wound a small portion of the brain. This, however, in his case only added to his powers of memory and general intelligence, which goes to show that in some cases the skull is really too thick, and is the better of being trepanned.

At this time St. Bricin was the head of a great lay college at Tuaim Drecain, which consisted of three distinct schools carried on in different buildings, each having its own professor--one a School of the Brehon Law (Feinechas), another a School of Poetry and History, and the third a School of Classical Learning. These schools were, it appears for convenience sake, located at the junction of three streets, so that the pupils could, when necessary, easily pass from one to another.

Now, as soon as Cennfaeladh's wound began to heal, he employed his leisure in attending the lectures delivered in these various schools; and his head having been specially opened, he acquired, and what is more, he retained all the lectures delivered in the different schools, so that he afterwards opened a similar academy himself, and was able to instruct his pupils in all these various branches of knowledge. Poetry, it seems, he made the vehicle of communicating his information, which was quite the usual practice in those early days; and it had this one great advantage when books were so scarce--it greatly helped the memory, thus rendering it much easier for the master to teach, and for the pupil to learn.

Some of the treatises thus composed by Cennfaeladh for the use of his schools have fortunately survived the ravages of time. O'Curry thinks it probable that he was the author of an entire Grammatical Tract which has been preserved in the _Book of Leacan_ and the _Book of Ballymote_.

This Tract, O'Curry tells us, is divided into four books. The authorship of the First Book is ascribed to Fenius Farsaidh, or Fenius the Antiquarian, an ancestor of Milesius, who may be regarded as a mythical personage, his name being introduced to lend an air of antiquity to the work. The Second Book is, for a similar reason, ascribed to Amergin, a son of Milesius. The Third Book is attributed to Ferceirtne the Poet, who flourished in the time of Conor Mac Nessa; but the Fourth Book is clearly the work of Cennfaeladh himself, who, if he did not compose, certainly revised the entire treatise. Cennfaeladh died about A.D. 678; and O'Curry thinks the work was retouched after his death by later scholars--most likely by Cormac Mac Cullinan, or some of his pupils, towards the close of the ninth century.

This most interesting work is unfortunately hitherto unpublished, for few scholars are qualified to undertake the task of its publication. It not only deals with the principles of the Irish grammatical construction, but compares the Gaedhlic forms with the Latin of Priscian, Donatus, and other authors then familiar to Irish scholars; and even to some extent it compares the Irish inflections with those of the Greek and Hebrew languages.

Cennfaeladh also compiled a Law Tract which has been published by the Brehon Law Commissioners; and moreover, he was the author of several historical poems, fragments of which are still extant. His poem on the Migrations of Milesius from Scythia to Spain is complete; but we possess only a fragment of another equally interesting one on the Death of the Ultonian Heroes of the Red Branch. To him also O'Reilly attributes the authorship of the poem on the Teach Midhchuarta, which describes all the furniture and arrangements of the great Mead-Circling House of Tara. So that it may be truly said that few schools in Ireland produced a more distinguished scholar than Bricin's Academy at Tomregan in Breifne.[446]

III.--CORMAC MAC CULLINAN.

This is, perhaps, the most fitting place to give an account of the life and writings of the celebrated Cormac Mac Cullinan, the Bishop-king of Cashel. It is as a Gaedhlic scholar he is best known to posterity, although his high position, his valour, his piety, as well as his tragical end, have all combined to render his career singularly interesting to his fellow countrymen.

Cormac was born so early as the year A.D. 835, at the very time when almost all Ireland was writhing under the oppression of the Danes. He was sprung from the chief royal family of Desmond, that is, the Eoghanachts of Cashel. It is well known that the entire province of Munster was divided between two sons of Ollioll Olum--Eoghan, the elder taking Desmond, and Cormac Cas the younger getting Thomond for his principality, with alternate right for both brothers to the sovereignty of the entire province. The Eugenian line, however, contrived to keep the sovereignty of the province for the most part in their family; and, as these kings lived generally at Cashel, the royal family of South Munster came to be called the Eoghanachts of Cashel.

No mention of Cormac is made in our Annals until he was called to the throne of Cashel by his fellow tribesmen, A.D. 900, when he had attained the mature age of sixty-five. The Four Masters, however, tell us that Sneidgius, the wise man of Disert-Diarmada, was his tutor; the latter died A.D. 885 (_recte_ 888), as we find it in the more accurate _Chronicon Scotorum_. Disert-Diarmada, now called Castle-Dermott, is a place of ancient fame in the south of the County Kildare. It took its old name from a hermitage founded there by St. Diarmaid, otherwise called Ainle, because he was a 'fresh-complexioned youngling,' as the Gloss on Ængus tells us, when he retired to the hermitage that has borne his name ever since. The ancient round tower still standing, as well as the old stone cross, and the broken shaft of a second cross, show that the old abbey, on whose site the Protestant Church now stands, was a place of great ecclesiastical importance. The Crouched Friars were established there by Walter de Riddlesford, and Thomas, Lord of Offaley, founded a convent for Franciscans in the same place. It was called Castle-Dermott from the castle erected by de Riddlesford in the reign of King John. It was a place of much strength, surrounded by walls, and defended by this strong castle; and hence we find that two Parliaments of the Pale were held here--one in the reign of Edward IV., and the other in A.D. 1499. Its chief glory, however, will always be that it was there Cormac Mac Cullinan was educated, and there he was buried. It gave him knowledge, and when his brief and stormy reign was over, it gave him the rest of the grave.

It seems that during the ninth century at least, the abbots of Disert-Diarmada enjoyed quasi-episcopal jurisdiction. Some of them were certainly bishops; and, no doubt, had a territory which owned their spiritual sway. In A.D. 842, we are told that "Cumsudh, son of Derero and Maenach, son of Sadchadach, who were both bishops and anchorites, died in one night at Disert-Diarmada." A.D. 895 died Muirghaes, Bishop and Abbot of Disert-Diarmada; and again in A.D. 1038, we hear of the death of a 'distinguished bishop' of Disert-Diarmada.

The learning of Cormac Mac Cullinan was, no doubt, acquired within the walls of this ancient monastic school. Sneidgius, the sage (_egnai_) of Disert-Diarmada, was his tutor, and from the acquirements of the pupil, it is not difficult to infer the learning of the master. We have now no means, however, of knowing how long Cormac remained at Disert-Diarmada.

He was certainly a bishop before he became King of Cashel, but it is difficult to say what See he was placed over, or whether he ever had charge of any See at all. We do not read in any of our Annalists that he was Bishop of Cashel before he became King of Munster; indeed it is very doubtful if he were ever Bishop of Cashel at all. There is no reference made to a Bishop of Cashel before this period, so far as we know, in any of our ancient authorities. It was the seat of the temporal royalty, but it had not yet become the seat of spiritual authority. The Four Masters say that Cormac was King and Bishop, but they do not say he was Bishop of Cashel. The _Annals of Ulster_ call him King of Cashel, but do not call him 'bishop' at all. The _Chronicon Scotorum_ describes him as "King of Cashel, a most excellent scribe, a bishop, and an anchorite;" but makes no reference to his See. Keating is, so far as we know, the first who calls Cormac, not Bishop, but Archbishop of Cashel. In fact down to the year A.D. 1101, Cashel was simply a royal dun, which gave its name to the kingdom of South Munster. There was up to that time no church or monastery at Cashel, of which we have any information. But in that year a remarkable event took place, thus recorded by the Four Masters: "A meeting of Leath Mogha was held at Caiseal by Muircheartach O'Briain with the chiefs of the laity, and O'Dunan, noble bishop and chief senior with the chiefs of the clergy; and on this occasion Muircheartach O'Briain made a grant, such as no king had ever made before, namely, he granted Caiseal of the kings to the religious, without any claim of laymen or clergymen upon it, but the religious of Ireland in general." Here we find at the beginning of the twelfth century, that for the first time in its history, Cashel was given up for religious purposes, and ceased to be the royal residence of the southern kings. We find down to that time frequent mention in our Annals of the kings and royal heirs of Cashel, but of no Bishop of Cashel. Thenceforward, however, we hear of the Archbishops, but not of the kings or tanists of Cashel. The thing appears to have been brought about in the following way.

In consequence of the temporal sovereignty of Cashel, the prelates of Emly, in whose diocese it was situated, began to claim metropolitan jurisdiction over all Munster, especially when the O'Brian family began to claim the sovereignty of Ireland during the eleventh century. Hence we find that Domhnall Ua Heni is called in the _Chronicon Scotorum_ 'Archbishop of the men of Munster' (Anno 1094). Celsus, the Primate, was anxious to oblige the King of Munster, and, moreover, O'Dunan, successor of O'Heni (from A.D. 1094-1118), was the personal friend and admirer of Celsus. Hence St. Bernard tells us that Celsus consented to establish _de novo_ a second metropolitan See in Ireland, subject, however, to the primatial See of Armagh. O'Dunan was the first who _de jure_, if it can be so called, enjoyed the metropolitan dignity in the South of Ireland; and we know that St. Malachy was anxious to obtain the pall for the new See of Cashel, as well as for his own primatial See of Armagh. And it was doubtless to provide a sufficient endowment and a becoming See for the new metropolitan that the king made over his own royal fortress, and a part of his mensal estates for that purpose.

King Murtogh O'Brian was succeeded in the year A.D. 1119 by Cormac Mac Carthy, a pious and munificent prince. He did not reside at Cashel, for it was now church property; and it is highly probable the 'noble senior and chief bishop of Munster' had already established his episcopal palace on the famous Rock. He was not yet, however, formally recognised as archbishop, for he was present at the Synod of Fiadh Mic Ænghusa, which, according to the Four Masters, was held in A.D. 1111, and he is there simply described as 'noble senior of Erin,' and as _Bishop_ of Munster, or as others have it, Bishop of Cashel. He was the first prelate who bore that title _de jure_, and he was a man who in every respect seems to have been worthy of the eminent dignity to which he was now elevated. He died at Clonard in the year A.D. 1117, according to the Four Masters, who describe him as "the head of the clergy in Ireland (in merit) and lord of the alms deeds of the West of Europe."

If, as the Four Masters say, his death took place in A.D. 1117, it was just two years before the death of his friend Murtogh O'Brian, "King of Munster and of Ireland," the munificent prince who gave over Cashel for religious purposes. Cormac, his successor, was not to be outdone in generosity, so we find that in A.D. 1127 he began to build the beautiful church on the Rock of Cashel, which has ever since been known as Cormac's Chapel. It is sometimes ascribed to Cormac Mac Cullinan, but Petrie conclusively shows that it was begun about A.D. 1127 by Cormac Mac Carthy, and consecrated seven years later in A.D. 1134, as all our annalists declare.

It is a singular fact, too, that Cormac Mac Carthy, shortly after the chapel on the Rock was begun, was driven from his throne by Turlough O'Conor, and was compelled to take refuge at Lismore, and there also "took the staff-bachall"--or crozier[447]--and was honoured with the counsels and friendship of St. Malachy. Hence he is called a bishop-king by a contemporary writer, Maelbrighte, in his copy of the Gospel now preserved in the British Museum. The Four Masters also referring to his murder in A.D. 1138, describe him as Lord of Desmond, and Bishop-king of Ireland; and add, that he was treacherously slain by Turlough, son of Diarmaid O'Brian, a grandson of the previous king. Our own opinion therefore is, that O'Dunan, the noble senior, was the first Bishop of Cashel, that it was Murtough O'Brian gave him his See-lands, and that it was Cormac Mac Carthy, himself a King-bishop, who built the beautiful chapel on the Rock, rather, however, as an episcopal oratory, than as a cathedral properly so called.

Now to return to Cormac Mac Cullinan. He became King of Munster in the year A.D. 900, when, as the _Annals of Ulster_ tell us, there was a 'change of kings' at Cashel, viz.: Cormac Mac Cullinan in the place of Cenngegain, that is Finnguine--the former term was, it seems, a nick-name of the previous king, who became unpopular and was deposed by the tribesmen. Next year he was murdered, but it was by his own kinsmen.

There is no doubt that Cormac was, as we have said, a bishop at this period. He was not Bishop of Emly, for the See was then filled. Neither was he Bishop of Lismore, as some writers have asserted, for his namesake, the Bishop of Lismore, lived until A.D. 1119. It is not necessary, indeed, to assume that he had any See. Hitherto he seems to have been a man of studious habits, as he certainly was a man of great learning. Being a member of the royal family of Munster, it would, so to speak, be the right thing to make him a bishop; but, in all probability, he spent most of his time in retirement at Disert-Diarmada, and was no doubt reluctantly called to the throne, as next in blood, by the revolution which deposed his predecessor.

All our annalists agree in representing Cormac as both a pious and learned prince; but we cannot call him either a great king or a great saint. That he was a just man according to the ordinary standard, he gave proof soon after his accession to the throne of Munster. The old rule of alternate succession between the Eugenian and Dalcassian lines had, as the learned Cormac was well aware, been scandalously violated. He resolved, so far as he could, that justice should be done when his reign would come to an end. Calling around him the chiefs both of Desmond and Thomond, he reminded them of the ancient rule of alternate succession, and confessing that the Eugenian line hitherto had enjoyed more than they were entitled to of the sovereign power, he besought the princes of his own house to consent to the succession of a Dalcassian prince to the throne of Munster. The princes of Desmond listened in respectful silence, and pretended to assent to the proposed arrangement, but afterwards declined to carry it out.

The seven years' reign of Cormac was full of stirring events. The first or second year of his reign was marked by "the expulsion of the Gentiles from Ireland, _i.e._, from the fortress of Ath-Cliath," as the _Annals of Ulster_ express it. They had, for some years, been losing ground on the eastern coasts, but at this period met with such a crushing disaster from Cearbhall, King of Leinster, that all the foreigners fled from Dublin, half-dead with terror, having left most of their ships behind them. It was the beginning of the 'forty years' rest,' which poor Ireland then enjoyed from their perpetual incursions. No doubt colonies of Danes still remained in the great sea-port towns, which they had built; but they were too much broken down by defeat to risk any new enterprises, and gladly confined themselves within their walls, spending their time rather in trade and commerce than, as hitherto, in war and rapine.

No sooner, however, did the native princes once more breath freely, than they turned their arms against each other. Flann Sionna, son of Maelsechnaill, was then King of Ireland. He had already reigned more than twenty years as Ard-righ; and what is more wonderful still, he was destined to reign sixteen years more, and, strangest of all, to die in his bed. He was a restless and ambitious prince, and seems to have inherited all the ancestral jealousy of the South of Ireland. In A.D. 904 he made a wanton raid into Ossory. Next year he led a hosting against Munster, and in conjunction with Cearbhall, King of Leinster, he plundered all the Golden Vale, from Gowran to Limerick. The men of Munster were now fairly roused, and even the Bishop-king was put upon his mettle. He levied a great army, and marched northwards to meet the troops of Flann and his allies in a fair fight. The rival hosts met on the same field of Magh Lena, which had witnessed the great battle between Conn the Hundred Fighter, and Eoghan Mor. Once more it was North and South arrayed against each other in fratricidal strife, whilst Danish colonies still held all the ports of the kingdom. Of old the North was victorious at Magh Lena; but now fortune favoured the men of Munster. Flann and his allies were completely defeated, and driven off the field. Not content with this victory, the King-bishop crossed the Shannon, and marching into the very heart of Connaught defeated and plundered the Connacians, who were allies of Flann. The hostages of the western provinces were carried off in triumph, and the fleets of Munster sailing up from Killaloe plundered the islands of Lough Ree.

So far no blame can be thrown on the King-bishop. He had merely defended his own territories, and chastised the insolence of an aggressive foe. But the victors were now grown wanton from success, and resolved to carry their triumphant arms into Leinster, as they had already done into Connaught. The pretext for this wanton invasion was the recovery of the old Borrumean tribute, which, it was alleged, the Leinster men had not paid for 200 years, and which the chiefs of Munster were now determined to exact. Cormac was himself entirely opposed to this unjust war. He felt, no doubt, that this alleged non-payment of the tribute was merely a pretext for a war of conquest. But his subjects were full of confidence from previous success; and, moreover, he was urged on to battle by his evil genius, Flaithbeartach, abbot of Inniscathy, a member of the royal house of Munster, and subsequently King of Cashel.

This restless ecclesiastic was the real author of all the evils that followed. He seems to have been a headstrong and impetuous man, fond of strife and prodigal of blood.

Cormac's greatest fault was weakly yielding against his own better judgment to the counsels of this evil adviser, who urged him to prosecute a war which Cormac in his own conscience believed to be unjust. The Leinster King had sent an embassy to Cormac offering to submit the questions at issue to the decision of a friendly conference--meantime asking a cessation from arms, and offering to give as a hostage the abbot of Cormac's own monastery of Disert-Diarmada. Cormac was willing to accept these terms; but the abbot of Inniscathy spurned them and declared he would alone fight the Leinster men. "Then," said Cormac, "I will not desert you, but I feel the issue of this battle will be fatal to me and mine." Thereupon he made his will, leaving rich gifts in gold and vestments to many churches, and desiring that his body should be buried, if possible, at Cloyne; if not, in Disert-Diarmada, where he was educated, and had spent so many quiet and happy years before he was called to bear the burden of a crown.

The battle was fought at Ballaghmoon, close to the ancient Campus Albus, where the great Synod was held in A.D. 630 with reference to the Paschal question. On this historic field the old quarrel of North against South was once more to be fought out. Flann, the King of Erin, and Cathal, son of Conor, King of Connaught, came to aid the King of Leinster with all their forces. On the other side were, besides Cormac and his chiefs, Ceallach, King of Ossory who, like Cormac himself, had suffered much from Flann's previous incursions, and other subordinate kings. From the first the tide of battle turned against the South. The gallant chieftains of Leath-Mogha would not desert their king, but they had no stomach for the fight. Ceallach of Ossory fled ingloriously from the field, and it is said that one Munster prince, a friend of the king, turned his horse's head from the foe, crying out bitterly, "It is a battle brought on by clerics--let the clerics fight it out." Cormac's horse, it is said, slipped in the blood pools, and fell upon his rider, who was thereupon seized and beheaded by a soldier of the North, on a stone which is still shown at Ballaghmoon. The nobles of the South fell thick around him, and the White Field was made red with the blood of the men of Munster. Amongst the slain were several abbots and other ecclesiastics who had followed the King-bishop to the field, but Flaherty, abbot of Inniscathy, the author of all the mischief, succeeded in effecting his escape.

The head of Cormac, after the battle, was carried by some soldiers to King Flann, but he rebuked them for their brutality, and ordered the body of his fallen foe to be sought for on the field of battle, and buried with the head at Disert-Diarmada, which was not far from the fatal field.[448]

IV.--WRITINGS OF CORMAC MAC CULLINAN.

Cormac Mac Cullinan is described by the Four Masters "as a king, a bishop, an anchorite, a scribe, and profoundly learned in the Scotic tongue." The _Martyrology of Donegal_ adds that although he had been married to the celebrated Gormlaith, daughter of Flann, his conqueror, he had always lived a perfect virgin, sleeping covered only with his thin tunic, and frequently immersed in cold water whilst chanting his psaltery. We, however, are more concerned with the king's writings than with his penances. Enough of his works still remain to prove the truth of the Masters' statement, that he was profoundly versed in the Scotic tongue, and we may add, not only in the language, but in the laws, the literature, the history, and the antiquities of his native country.

Cormac's _Glossary_ is a work that is now well known to Irish scholars, thanks to the diligent labour of John O'Donovan and of Dr. Whitley Stokes, by whom it was translated and published in 1868. The book is now a rare and dear one, but invaluable for a student of the Celtic language and literature. It contains quotations from Latin authors, from Irish chronicles, and from the poems of our native bards and ollaves. There are also numerous references to the laws, romances, druidism, and mythology of ancient Erin. From another point of view the work is interesting, not so much for its philological learning, as because it shows the extent and variety of the scholarship, cultivated in our Irish Schools during the ninth century. As O'Curry says--"The author (of the Glossary) traces a great many of the words, either by derivation from, or comparison with, the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin, the British, and (as he calls it) the Northmantic language, and it contains at least one Pictish word--_Cartait_--almost the only word of the Pictish language that we possess."[449] There is no work in any living European language that gives such evident proof of high culture in the ninth century as this most interesting monument of Celtic learning.

A second great work that has been usually attributed to Cormac is the _Psalter of Caiseal_. O'Donovan in his learned Introduction to the _Book of Rights_ explains, we think, very satisfactorily the conflicting statements that have been made by Irish scholars with reference to this famous compilation. Colgan and Keating, two eminent authorities, both ascribe to Cormac Mac Cullinan the composition of that noble work, "which," says Colgan, "has always been held in the highest estimation." On the other hand, Connell Macgeoghegan, the translator of the _Annals of Clonmacnoise_, ascribes it to Brian Boru, and that, too, in the most formal language. Stranger still, Colgan himself, in another passage attributes the famous Chronicle called the _Psalter of Caiseal_ to St. Benignus, the favourite disciple of St. Patrick; but he cautiously adds that Benignus began its composition--inchoavit et composuit--which can be well reconciled with what he says of Cormac Mac Cullinan's share in the work. In a word, Benignus began it, and made it suitable to his own time; Cormac enlarged and perfected it, making all the necessary changes in point of language and matter, which the lapse of 350 years imperatively demanded; and finally, in the time of King Brian Boru it may, as Macgeoghegan asserts, have been still further corrected and enlarged to suit the needs of the time, and then formally approved of by that monarch, as well as by his bishops and his nobles.

St. Benignus, though born in Meath, was of Munster origin. St. Patrick sent him to preach especially in those districts which he did not himself visit. Hence Benignus, we are told, went through Kerry and Corcomroe in his missionary labours; but particularly devoted himself to Southwestern Connaught, and built his chief church at Kilbannon, near Tuam. He also specially blessed that province, the natives of which still affectionately revere the memory of the gentle saint with the sweet voice and winning gracious ways.

Now, when the Munstermen heard of the preference and the blessings which Benignus gave to Galway, they were jealous, and complained that he slighted his own kindred. So to please them, Benignus went down to Caiseal, and remained there from Shrovetide to Easter, composing in his own sweet numbers a learned book, which would immortalise the province of his kinsmen, and be useful, moreover, both to her princes and to her people.

Such was the beginning of the _Psalter of Caiseal_, the great Domesday Book of the South, written in verse, and recording the sub-divisions of the kingdom, the rights and privileges of its various sub-kings, the gifts they were entitled to receive from the King of Caiseal, the boundaries of their territories, and so forth. A portion of this primitive _Psalter of Caiseal_ appears to have been embodied in the existing work, the authorship of which, although not in its present form, has been rightly attributed to the same St. Benignus.

Cormac Mac Cullinan in his own day undertook to re-edit this _Psalter of Caiseal_, and no man was better qualified for the purpose, both by his office and by his learning. In the accomplishing of his task he was assisted by his secretary, Selbach, the Sage, a Munster poet, whom Colgan describes as a man of singular piety and learning,[450] and also by Ængus, another sage, of whom nothing else is known. Several poems have been likewise attributed to Cormac, but their authenticity is very doubtful.

Colgan, Keating, and Sir James Ware all speak of the _Psalter of Caiseal_ as extant in their own time; but it has since unhappily disappeared, although a very considerable fragment is contained in a MS. now in the Bodleian Library of Oxford. That MS. was, O'Donovan tells us, transcribed in A.D. 1453 for Mac Richard Butler, by Shane O'Cleary, doubtless a member of the famous antiquarian family of that name. It contains several ancient poems and other treatises which undoubtedly formed part of the _Psalter of Caiseal_ as compiled by King Cormac.

Besides his share in the composition of the _Psalter of Caiseal_, Selbach, Cormac's learned secretary, is also said to have been the author of a work well known to Irish scholars as the _Naoimh-Senchus_, or poetical history of the saints of Erin. It is one of the authorities which Michael O'Clery constantly quotes in the _Martyrology of Donegal_; and Colgan expressly attributes its authorship to Selbach the Sage, or, as he calls him in Latin, Selvacius, and he frequently cites that work under his name.[451] The _Naoimh-Senchus_ has also, but with less probability, been attributed to Ængus Ceile De, of whom we have already spoken.

There is an excellent copy of this ancient poem in the _Book of Leacan_;[452] there was another copy in the Burgundian Library of Brussels, which is, we believe, now in the Franciscan Convent, Merchants' Quay, Dublin.