Columba* or Columkille, the apostle of the Picts;

Besançon, Namur, Cologn, in France and the Netherlands, and even in London, Churches were dedicated to her; and Colgan counts about sixty Churches and Nunneries dedicated to her, in the dioceses of Dublin, Kildare, Tuam, Elphin, and Lismore only.

* Columba was of royal race, the son of Feidhlim, the son of Feargus, the son of Conal Gulban, the son of Niall the Great. He was born A.D. 525, and educated at the school of St. Finian, at Clonard, near the Boyne; a school so renowned, that no less than 3000 scholars have been reckoned therein, at one time, according to Colgan, Usher, &c. After his studies were completed, in which he made great proficiency, he embraced the monastic order, and was held in great reverence. But the violence of his temper, and his zeal for the privileges of his monastery, which had been vio. lated, led him into disputes, especially with Comhgall, the celebrated Abbot of Benchor, or Bangor, in which much blood was spilt. This gave great scandal to the church and kingdom; and in a synod held A.D. 569, he was excommunicated, and banished from Ireland for ever. On his arrival in Albania, Conal, king of the Dalriada, bestowed on him the isle of Hy. Here he established his chief monastery; and from thence, with his disciples, he entered the country of the Picts, and, during his exile of thirty-three years, converted the whole country; and died at the age of seventy-seven, with the glorious title of the Apostle of the Picts. His submission to the censures of the synod, his profound repentance, and most exemplary life, attoning for his former offences, extorted the remark from his preceptor St. Finian: "That his example ought to carry as many souls to Heaven, as his wars

according to the Latin distich (more correctly from Messingham :)

In burgo Duno, tumulo tumulantur in uno,
Brigida, Patricius, et Columba Pius.

"In Down, three Saints one tomb do fill,
Bridget, Patrick, and Columkille."

Afterwards, the famous John de Courcy, who conquered Ulster, about A.D. 1185, had their remains taken up, and translated into shrines, in the Cathedral Church of Down; which were held in high veneration, until the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Leonard Lord Grey, in 1538 burnt the Church, destroyed the shrines of the Saints, and committed many other sacrileges. He was beheaded himself, three years after, on Tower-hill,

Such was the illustrious Apostle of Ireland, who laboured more abundantly in planting the Gospel, than any other man, perhaps, since the days of St. Paul. I have briefly attempted to vindicate his character from the disgraceful fictions of his Monkish historians, by recurring to his genuine writings, and to the soberer testimony of his contemporary, and favourite disciple; whose excessive veneration, however, for his master seems to have warped his judgment in a few instances. And

had plunged into Hell." Usher Primord. Eccles. Brit.O'Halloran's History of IRELAND, vol. 2, p. 77-79.

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such was the strictly Evangelical" religion, puré and undefiled," inculcated by St. Patrick and his immediate followers; until it became corrupted, at length, by the disastrous connexion of the Irish Church, with the Church and See of Rome, early in the twelfth century; when the Irish Archbishops were persuaded, through the artifices and intrigues of those active emissaries of the Papacy, Malachy, Christian, Gilbert, &c. to make a surrender of their exclusive privileges to Rome, which hitherto had been handed down inviolate from the days of St. Patrick.

To the flourishing state of Religion and Letters in Ireland, after the Apostolic labours of St. Patrick, honourable and impartial testimony is borne by Camden, Bede, &c.

"The Disciples of St. Patrick profited so notably in Christianity, that in the succeeding age nothing was held more holy, more learned, than "the Scottish (or Irish) Monks; insomuch that they sent out swarms of most holy men into every part of Europe; [such were Cœlius Sedulius, Columba, Columbanus, Colman, Aidan, Gallus, &c.] who founded the abbies of Lieuxeu in Burgundy; Bobie, in Italy, Wirtzburg, in Franconia, St Gall, in Switzerland; and Malmsbury, Lindisfarran, with many others, in Britain. In that age, our Anglo-Saxons flowed from every quarter into Ireland, as to a mart of sound literature. Whence in our accounts of holy men, we frequently read,

P 3

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Amandatus est ad disciplinam in Hiberniam, "He was sent for education to Ireland." And in the Life of Sulgen, who flourished six hundred years ago, it is said.

Exemplo patrum, commotus amore legendi,
Ivit ad Hibernos, sophia mirabili claros.

"After the example of his fathers, inspired with love of reading,

He went to the Irish, renowned for admirable wisdom."

Camden Hibernia, p. 647, 648.

Bede relates, that " Many of the English, both nobles, and of mean parentage, in the time of Bishops Finan and Colman, went to Ireland for instruction in divinity, and in the greater continency, or stricter discipline, of monastic life, and

* "Our monasteries," says primate Usher, in ancient time, were the seminaries of the ministry; being, as it were, so many colleges of learned Divines, whereunto the people usually resorted for instruction, and the church was wont continually to be supplied with able ministers. Even Giraldus Cambrensis, who was no friend to the monks, acknowledges, that almost all the prelates of Ireland were usually chosen out of the monasteries into the clergy. The benefit of these institutions was not confined to the limits of this island, but extended itself to foreign countries likewise. For this it was, as Bede remarks, that drew Egbert and Ceadda, for example, into Ireland, that they might lead there, diligently, a monastic

delighted to visit the cells of the masters for instruction. All of whom, the Scoti, (or Irish)

life, in prayers, and continency, and meditation of the Holy Scriptures: and hence were those famous monasteries planted in England, by Aidan, Colman, and others, to which, as well as to the Church, the people eagerly flocked on the Lord's day, not for the refreshing of the body, but for the hearing of the word of God."

How strict this discipline was, may appear from the penances imposed on the refractory.

By the rules of Columbanus, who founded the Bobian monastery, in Lombardy, A.D. 610—"If any brother be disobedient, he shall fast two days with one biscuit and water; if any say, I will not do what is requisite, three days, with one biscuit and water; if any do not ask leave, or give a just excuse, two days, with one biscuit and water.”—At the same time, they were taught the inefficacy of extreme mortifications: "What profit is it," said Columbanus, "to be a virgin in body, and not a virgin in mind?" He exhorts them "to profit daily, as they prayed daily, and read daily;" and when King Sigebert made large offers to Columbanus and his companions, to keep them within his dominions in France, they declined his invitation: "We who have left our own, that, according to the Evangelical precept, we might follow the LORD,' ought not to embrace the riches of others; lest peradventure we shall be transgressors of the divine command."

Our monks were religious in deed, and not in name only; free from the hypocrisy, pride, idleness, and uncleanness of those evil beasts and slothful bellies, that afterwards succeeded in their room, during the usurpations of the Church of Rome, and under her fostering care. Some of them worked in the garden, others dressed the orchard, Gallus Magnoaldus