EPOCHS IN IRISH HISTORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1916, 6 November 1890, Page 41

EPOCHS IN IRISH HISTORY.

Bt R. N. Adams.

No. VIII.-ECCLESIASTICAL DIFFERENCES. EASTEBN VERSUS WESTERN SYSTEMS.

It is pretty generally acknowledged that those Christian teachers who first influenced the theology and ecclesiastical customs of Ireland were missionaries from, the Eastern rather than the Western Church— that is, they were followers of the Greek or Asiatic Church doctrines rather than the Romish teachers. For more than two centuries after the time of Patrick they adopted, not the Western form of ecclesiastical tonsure or style of shaving of monks' heads, but the Eastern. They were not in conformity with Rome in the celebration of Kaster, over which question they resisted the directions of the See of Rome for 150 years, and kept up a brisk controversial war on the subject, some of their wisest clergy persisting in the plan condemned in Rome nearly a century before the mission of Patrick. In their schools the Scriptures were used as the principal textbook. Each student was called upon not only to read it, but to make a copy of it, or at least a portion of it, for himself. The clergy were not exempt from the payment of taxes, nor from military service. They continued lor centuries to refuse permission to foreigners being placed over them as bfehops. Even in the 12th century Giraldus Carnbrensis refused a bishopric in Ireland because " The Irish, like the Welsh, will never take or accept for a bishop, unless compelled by violence, a man born out of their country." Indeed so very different were the Irish from the Continental churches that there were as many bishops as there were parishes. Each church had its own bishop. There was no archbishop among them ; and each clergyman possessed equal authority with his neighbour. There was no earthly head in the Irish Church. Nor is there one authentic record existing to show that before the time of Adrian IV the clergy of Ireland acknowledged the authority of the Pope in the direction of their affairs. Ireland was the last of the Western nations over which the supremacy of the Pope was cast.

THE EASTER CELEBRATION.

During the third century the custom of observing Easter was introduced into the Christian catalogue of festivals along with some others of a smilar character. This was a festival which had been observed for centuries among the Babylonians, the Greeks and other heathen nations; in fact, a 1 most all nations had a feast which almost exactly synchronised with it. Its date fell near upon that of the Crucifixion, and it was a simple matter to convert it into a Christian holyday. The Irish feast which corresponded with it was the feast of Samhin ; and among other appropriations this one was turned into a Christian feasfc and holy season. Butin A.D 325 the Council of Nice had concluded that all over the world there should be a compulsory uniformity, and fixed a date at variance with what was in the sth century adopted by the Irish ; but the latter resolved to keep to their day, and continued to observe the day of their old Druid feast in spite of many strong remonstrances from Rome. Haverty says : " Veneration for the customs of their fathers has always been a characteristic of the Scottic race. In this case they held on to the tradition of the great saints who planted Christianity in their country, and enriched it with their virtues, and no arguments could for a long time convince them that a usage sanctified by Patrisk, Brigid, and Columbkille could be erroneous. They were certainly guilty of obstinacy." They peisisted in this obstinacy until Pope Honorious called attention to their difference from the customs of the rest of Christendom in the matter in 620 A.D., 300 years after the Council of Nice had promulgated the rule for the universal church. Still, disobedient to the Papal authority, the Irish, reluctant to change their manner of observing the day, sent a deputation to Rome to confer with the Pope, and learn for themselves the custom of the churches of the Contic ent. They were three years absent, and on returning reported that " the Roman custom was that of the whole world," and on learning that, it was decided to conform to the universal custom. Still for over a century longer the monks of the Columbian order in Ulster followed the old plan, observing Easter on the 14th day of the moon rather than the first Sunday after.

BTUDT OF THE SCRIPTURES.

In Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome the study of philosophy had become the common intellectual pursuit of the learned. The various schools promoted and defended their various and contradictory theories with great zeal and bewildering arguments, and in their schemes at a very early date fell into conflict with the preachers of the faith of Christians. Many of the preachers were philosophers, and in their defence of the faith they made strong efforts to harmonise philosophy and Scripture, and so originated theological systems which gradually superseded Scripture as the standards of authority, and as the expositions of the adopted creeds. In that way the Scriptures fell into disuetude as the special text book, and afterwards were regarded as of no importance to the common people. In Ireland there was no such struggle with philosophical systems. There were no schools with which to come into conflict, no intellectual thrones to overthrow, modify, or harmonise with Scripture. The Scriptures were left free, and became the fundamental element in the studies of the industrious disciples. As it was cast aside in the schools of the East and West, it found a home among the priests and monks of Irelarid. Hence we find a good cause for the wonderfnl contrast which existed in the sixth and seventh centuries between the power of the Irish and the Continental teachers. The students who went from Ireland to preach on the Continent' were Scripturetaught men, while those who gained their tuition in the monasteries of Italy, Greece, Asia, and Africa were nurtured on mixtures of theology and philosophy, and were therefore not equipped as defenders of a faith whose first principles they had not learned. That made all the difference. The student of the Bible is led into the study of all that bears directly on i(s, and beoae among the early Irish scholars

were found men versed in Hebrew and Greek, while in the older countries they were generally contented with the Latin; for after Jerome's translation of the Bible into the " vulgar " Latin, that version was adopted as the Orthodox Bible, and Greek and Hebrew were unnecessary to the Latin theologian. In Ireland, although the Latin tongue" was the language of the learned, the preachers delivered their sermons in the speech of the people, and studied the Scriptures from their original sources.

SUPREME HEAD,

It was contrary to the natural characteristics of the Irish to recognise any supreme authority. All their institutions were founded on a principle directly at variance with such a thing. They had no national head in whom all sovereignty centred. Their king was merely a recognised general, to whom was entrusted control of the united forces, should they ever be called upon to act in one common cause, which they rarely, if ever, did. Their national council was not even invested with absolute power. It could not enforce the universal observation of its own enactments. It was more after the fashion of a board of advice than a legislature. Each petty prince was head of his own principality, as we have already observed. The people from the very first were devoted to local government in the freest sense — a system which did not always prove the wisest or the most suitable. The opportunities which the introduction of Christianity presented for bringing about a high state of civilisation were lost chiefly through this absence of a spirit of patriotism. There had been no system of politics or rnbrals cultivated among them to stir up the love of " country," as a national home. Each one seemed to look upon all outside his own district as aliens and enemies. Their love of countiy was a small thing, limited to narrow boundaries. The animating " national " spirit had never come into life among them. On account of this want of combination, all their customs were of the narrowest character. Besides, their former religious order was quite in harmony with their secular propensities in this way, and they had deviated as little as possible from old establishments. When they accepted the teachings of Christianity they were not taught that they were required to suomit their allegiance to any supreme head or foreign court. In fact, when Patrick passed over and became their chief leader the tenets of supremacy had not yet been definitely settled in the Continental church, and the church he established was one which perfectly agreed with the free spirit of the people. Every parish had its pastor or its bishop, over whom there were no archbishops. There were as many as 300 bishops at -one time in the primitive Irish Church, and each one was simply an independent minister, who knew nothing of the power of the Bishop of Rome. It is one of the singular phases of the Irish Church that it was tho last one in Europe to acknowledge the power of the Pope. This is accounted for by some by the fact that many of those who objected to the dogma of the Bishop of Rome's supremacy left Continental churches, and took refuge in Ireland.