Clonmacnoise Monastery

Clonmcnoise was founded in 544CE by St. Ciarán where a major east-west route crossed the River Shannon. Location is important in real estate, even for monasteries, and this location meant opportunities for visitors and trade, making it a major center for religion and learning for centuries. Ciarán met Diarmait Mac Cerbaill there, who became the first Christian High King of Ireland. Together they built the first wooden church on the site. The first community had about a dozen men.

It was visited by St. Columba (according to Adomnán), who while there prophesied about a future where there would be debates over the dating of Easter.

By the 9th century the place was thriving and had grown to several buildings and between one and two thousand men. Wooden structures had been replaced with stone. Ciarán had died in 549, and his body buried under the original church that was later rebuilt in stone as the Temple Ciarán (see illustration). It is the smallest church on the site at only 9x12 feet.

Excavations of Temple Ciarán have revealed no body, but did uncover a crozier. The detailed and beautiful Clonmacnoise Crozier is on display at the National Museum of Ireland. Although some like to associate it with Ciarán, the workmanship dates it to the late 11th century. It is an example of the superb craftsmanship that came out of Clonmacnoise, as its location and reputation created a thriving secular community as well as a religious one.

Plague was always an issue in the Middle Ages. Ciarán died from the plague, and a plague in the late 7th century killed many of the students and teachers. In the 12th century, Clonmacnoise began to decline. Raids reaching far inland from Vikings (one of the authors of the Clonmacnoise Book of the Dun Cow was killed in 1106 by Vikings) and Normans (who had taken over England in 1066) contributed, but so did simple economic factors. Not far to the north the town of Athlone was growing and drawing talent and commerce. There were also competing religious sites as other orders started to move into Ireland to spread their own versions of monasticism.

One Clonmacnoise survival is the Annals of Clonmacnoise, chronicling Ireland from prehistory to 1408. I'll tell you a little about it next time.

The Book of Kells

The BBC once suggested it was "Medieval Europe's greatest treasure." The Book of Kells is a Latin Gospel (with added material) created c.800 CE whose precise place of origin is unknown. For centuries it resided at the Abbey of Kells in County Meath, Ireland, which is how it got its current name.

It has 340 vellum leaves, 13 by 9.8 inches, both sides of which are used, totaling 680 pages which were bound into four separate volumes in 1953. Ten of the pages are illustrations, like the "Chi ro" page seen here. Chi ro are the first letters of Christ's name. It stands out because of the ornate illustrations, combining traditional Christian iconography with the complex and intertwined images of animals and humans found in the art of the British Isles. Even the text pages are filled with elaborate decoration. The text, written with iron gall ink, gives evidence of handwriting by at least three different scribes.

For a long time the book was thought to be created in the time of St. Columba, possibly even by him, but the style of the lettering system suggests it was long after. Proponents of the Columba theory suggest that maybe it was created to mark the 200th anniversary of his death. Various theories place its origin at Iona, or Kells, or started at the former and finished at the latter.

Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of its history is that it survived Viking invasions and other events. The Annals of Ulster record (the first reference to the book) that in 1007 "the great Gospel of Columkille,  the chief relic of the Western World, was wickedly stolen during the night from the western sacristy of the great stone church at Cenannas on account of its wrought shrine" (a wrought shrine is the elaborately and richly decorated box for holding a book). The Annals' reference to Columcille (St. Columba's real name) is why scholars link it to him.

The Book of Kells now resides in the Trinity College Library in Dublin. If you'd like your own copy, you can find a facsimile edition here.

For a more lighthearted look at medieval books, how about if tomorrow we look at the first medieval book of jokes?

The Quest to Spread Christianity

Christianity came to Britain early. Tertullian and Origen, writing in the early 3rd century, mention Christian figures there. What is now Christian doctrine was not fully formed, however, and so some practices differed from what was happening around the Mediterranean. Pelagius, for example, was born there, whose heretical ideas prompted St. Jerome to call him "stuffed with Scottish porridge." The Synod of Whitby pitted the practices of Irish/Celtic/British Christianity against Roman Christianity.

The Christianity developing in the British Isles may have developed differently, but the fervor with which missionaries felt it should be spread was the equal of any 1st century apostle. Missionaries such as Patrick and Finnian of Clonard christianized Ireland, the Irish then christianized the Picts, then St. Columba focused on Scotland. (In all this, the Anglo-Saxons seem to have been left alone. The counties stories of the spread of Christianity in the first several centuries don't include anyone going on missions to southern England, until Pope Gregory I sends Augustine of Canterbury in 597 to preach to them.)

With all the islands converted, Irish missionaries looked for farther goals...and there was a whole continent waiting. One of the most successful Irish missionaries was Columbanus (543 - 615). He first went to Burgundy, establishing schools until he was exiled from there by Theuderic II. He went to Austria and established an abbey there. When Theuderic took over that part of the continent, Columbanus fled to Italy and established a scholar Bobbio.

His schools raised hundreds of Christians with the same philosophy of mission work, establishing monasteries in Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland. The legacies of St. Gall and the Scots Monastery can be traced back to Columbanus and his schools.

The Íslendingabók ("Book of the Icelanders") written between 1122 and 1133 mentions Irish priests already in Iceland when the Norse arrived.

The 14th and 15th centuries saw a decline in the number of Irish monks traveling to Europe and joining the monasteries. Monasteries in Nuremberg and Vienna were given over to German groups. The Scots Monastery was handed to a Scottish congregation in 1577 by papal decree.

Enough about missions from Great Britain. What happened when a mission came to Great Britain? Did Augustine have an easy time of it, with the Christians nearby? We'll find out tomorrow.

Adomnán of Iona

Adomnán of Iona (also known as Eunan) was born about 627 CE in what is now County Donegal. We do not know a lot of details of his life before he became the ninth abbot of Iona in 679. At some point he tried to get the monks of Northern Ireland to adopt the Roman dating of Easter, decided at the Synod of Whitby in 664. Irish monasteries were still opposed to this, and modern scholars think his authority was probably weakened by his attempts to get Iona to change, and by his absences from Iona as he traveled to other monasteries to try to persuade them to follow the Roman method of calculation.

His greatest legacy may be the Vita Columbae, the "Life of Columba." He was related on his father's side to St. Columba, and used an earlier source to write the definitive biography. The Life of Columba is a valuable resource for information about groups like the Picts, the practices of monasteries, and the politics of the time.

He also wrote De Locis Sanctis, "On Holy Places." He got the information second-hand by a Bishop named Arculf who visited Iona after being to the Holy Land, Egypt, Constantinople, and Rome.

He is also known for the Cáin Adomnán (Gaelic: "Canons of Adomnán"). Presented and agreed to in 697 at the Synod of Birr—a meeting of Irish nobles and churchmen believed to have been convened by Adomnán himself—it established the safety and immunity of non-combatants during war. It is also referred to in Latin as the Lex Innocentium, the "Law of Innocents."

As mentioned in the previous post, he makes one of the earliest references to the divine right of kings. Diarmait Mac Cerbaill was High King of Ireland; he died about 565. Adomnán said he was "ordained by God's will as king of all Ireland," and that his assassin was visited by divine punishment. 

Adomnán died in 704, possibly on 23 September, which is celebrated as his feast day. Although the name Adomnán and its variants are rarely found today, his alternate name of Eunan is found on the Cathedral of Eunan and St. Columba in Letterkenny, County Donegal, as well as on other churches and schools.

I came to talk about Adomnán because of the link to the divine right of kings I wrote about yesterday, but the more I read, the more puzzling his example became. A monk declaring Diarmait Mac Cerbaill "ordained by God's will" looks more and more odd when you look at the king's actions: was he a Christian High King of Ireland, or was he a King of Tara, or both? We'll go into this tomorrow.

Copyright–A Brief History

As understood and discussed in modern culture, copyright is a very recent development. The Berne convention in 1886 gave international attention to the protection of authorial work. The Statute of Anne in 1710 (also called An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned) had established that right for Britain. This is usually called the first copyright law, and there's no argument there.

The reference to copyright that has been made in the last few posts is over the Cathach, the psalter (supposedly) copied by St. Columba from the scriptorium of Abbot Finnian of Movilla in the 6th century. Finnian objected to Columba having it and, when appealed to over the conflict, the High King of Ireland Diarmait said "To every cow belongs her calf, therefore to every book belongs its copy." Whether this was the actual cause of the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne is not firmly established.

Between those two dates were other attempts at protecting the written word. Aldus Manutius (1449 - 1515), who invented the paperback and italic writing, received a privilegio from the Doge of Venice in 1502 forbidding the use or imitation by others of his italic font. Earlier in Venice, Marc' Antonio Sabellico in 1486 was given from the Venetian cabinet the sole right to publish his work on the history of the Republic; the fine was 500 ducats.

There seems to have been a "right to image" in Classical Rome for death masks and statues of one's ancestors, but the "copyright holder" was the family of the person pictured, not the artist.

Medieval writers (such as Chaucer) were less likely to write something new than they were to take a familiar story (like the Trojan War) and put their own spin on it. Even Shakespeare was getting his plots from history and literature. This seems to be the opposite of why the Statute of Anne was made (see its full title). Encouraging authors to create more by protecting the originality of their work was not something on the mind of the medieval author.

It seems to me that a strong sense of copyright in Ireland of the 6th century, as suggested by the Cathach anecdote (whose link to the Battle was made long after the event and is not corroborated by any contemporary documents) would have led to more examples of evolution of actual law over time. Columba's desire to have a copy of a manuscript was not that unusual. One of a monastery's typical functions was to copy manuscripts for preservation and dissemination, and we'll talk more about that next time.

The Cathach

The oldest extant manuscript in Ireland is the Cathach. The Cathach is a psalter, a copy of the Book of Psalms from the Bible (actually, Psalm 30:13 to 105:13). Traditionally, it is associated with St. Columba, and is also called The Cathach of St. Columba. It is dated to the second half of the 6th century, which places it in his lifetime (Columba died 597).

There is a legend that it was made in one night, copied from an original in Movilla Abbey. Supposedly, Abbot Finnian of Movilla objected to Columba making and taking a copy, and the conflict led to a terrible battle. during which 3000 men were killed. This is sometimes referred to as the first war over copyright.

This is unlikely; it is, however, associated with battle for another reason. The O'Donnell clan possessed it, and as a holy book it was considered to give protection in times of battle. Safe in its cumdach (a reliquary specifically made for a book, pictured above), it was carried by a holy man or monk three times around the waiting army prior to battle, and a rallying cry of "An Cathach!" ("The Battler!") would go up from the troops.

The cumdach was made for it. It consists of a wooden box that has been re-decorated a few times. It has bronze and gilt-silver plates, and settings for glass and crystal "gems." Completed in  Kells in the second half of the 11th century, it was added to in the late 1300s with a Crucifixion scene, and then again in the 16th and 18th centuries. The cumdach is in the National Museum of Ireland. The Cathach itself is preserved and studied in the Royal Irish Academy.

What was the likelihood that a battle would be fought over copyright? Hard to say, especially since copyright as we think of it in modern times is a fairly new idea. Or is it? Let's talk about that next time.

Battle of Cúl Dreimhne

The Battle of Cúl Dreimhne likely took place in 560CE (estimates vary). Although there are different accounts of the reason for the battle, the most popular is that it was fought over a copy of the Cathach ("The Battler").

The Cathach is a psalter, a collection of the Psalms from the Bible. The original was at Movilla Abbey, in the possession of Saint Finnian of Movilla. A visiting Columba made a copy of it miraculously in a single night, in order to have his own, but Finnian objected to this.

The question arose: was the copy owned by Finnian because he possessed the original, or by Columba because he made it? The High King of Ireland, King Diarmait Mac Cerbaill, famously proclaimed "To every cow belongs her calf, therefore to every book belongs its copy." Then (according to this version of the story), Columba raised an army to fight for his right to keep the copy. It is far likelier that the battle was a dynastic conflict because of the way Diarmait had assumed the kingship after his predecessor's death.

Another theory for the start of the battle is the violation of the rules of sanctuary when a man under Columba's protection was forcibly taken and executed, whereupon Columba raised an army against Diarmait. Columba was exiled for his actions and required to create as many souls for Christ as had been killed in the battle (3000). There is no evidence that his missionary work after that time was the result of exile rather than a desire to spread Christianity.

But as to the battle itself: it was in northwest Ireland in what is now County Sligo. You can visit the site of the "Cooldrumman Battlefield" at the foot of Ben Bulben. Modern scholars point out that the earliest references to the battle do not mention a book at all.

Was the Cathach so important that a battle could arise over it losing its uniqueness and its place on Movilla Abbey. To answer that, we need to take a closer look at the Cathach itself, and that's what we'll do next.

St. Columba at Loch Ness

Adomnán’s Life of St Columba, written around 700CE (keeping in mind that Columba died in 597) tells quite a few interesting stories. Maybe he did start the first war fought over copyright; maybe he left Ireland because his relative was physically dragged from him and killed (even though as a priest he was officially "sanctuary").

...and maybe he defeated the Loch Ness monster.

At the northern end of Loch Ness there is an outflow, the River Ness, that flows northward about six miles through Inverness to the sea. In 565, St. Columba was in Scotland, building abbeys such as Iona and converting Picts. He heard that a monster came from the river and killed a Pict. Columba came to the shores of the river and confronted the beast, which attacked one of Columba's companions, a disciple named Lugne. Columba saved Lugne and banished the beast back to the depths. Of course, the monster would return in the 20th century.

The abbey at Iona became the birthplace of Celtic Christianity. Iona is a small island on the west coast of Scotland, and the abbey he built there still stands as a church. A note on the name "Iona." The Life of St. Columba refers to it as "Ioua insula," and it seems likely that a mis-reading of the script called Insular Minuscule enabled readers to mistake the "u" for an "n." No other reference to it in the Middle Ages is similar to the word "Iona" at all.

Columba stayed at Iona until his death on 9 June 597 (also his feast day), and was buried there. The relics of this saint were removed to save them from desecration by marauding raids by vikings in the 9th century. He is considered one of the three patron saints of Ireland, along with Patrick and Brigid of Kildare.

Let's look in more detail about an incident in Columba's life that I've mentioned twice now: the war fought over copyright. See you tomorrow.

St. Columba

One of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland who studied under Finnian, Columba is best known for his time spreading Christianity in Scotland (you can see him preaching to the Picts in the illustration), and for defeating the Loch Ness monster.

"Columba" was not his given name, about which there is some debate. For the first five years of his life he lived in the village of Glencolmcille. The Abbot of Iona, Adomnán, who wrote a biography of Columba, believed Colmcille was his given name, and the village was later named after him. Other sources state that his given name was Crimthann ("fox"). "Colmcille" is Irish for dove; when writing about him in Latin, "Columba" is chosen because it also means dove.

He studied at a few different places before winding up, in his twenties, at Clonard under Finnian, where he became a monk and was eventually ordained a priest. Returning to Ulster years later, Columba became known for his powerful speaking voice. He founded several monasteries. He also planned a pilgrimage to Rome, but only got as far as Tours, whence he brought back a copy of the Gospels that had supposedly rested on the bosom of St. Martin for a century.

Columba's interest in holy literature turned into a controversy. He made a copy of manuscript in the scriptorium of Movilla Abbey, a place he had studied before his time at Clonard. The head of the Abbey, Finnian of Movilla, disputed his right to keep the copy he had made. Anecdotally, this led to a battle, the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne.

Another controversy in which he became embroiled concerned the concept of sanctuary. Prince Curnan of Connacht was a relative of Columba. When Curnan accidentally killed a rival in a hurling match, he sought sanctuary in the presence of his ordained relative, Columba. King Diarmait of Cooldrevny's men forcibly dragged Curnan away from Columba and killed him. Columba decided he should leave Ireland.

Columba went to Scotland in 563 with twelve companions where he started preaching to the Picts. For his founding of one of the most important centers of Christianity in Western Europe, and his conflict at Loch Ness, come back tomorrow.

The Teacher of Irish Saints

Finnian of Clonard was an Irish cleric who built schools, monasteries, and churches to spread Christianity. His schools thrived for centuries after his death.

Born about 470CE in the Kingdom of Leinster, he was placed at an early age under the care of a bishop. He is said to have studied at the monastic center of Martin of Tours. Later, after spending 30 years in Wales, he returned to Ireland.

Around 520, he was led by a vision of an angel to Clonard, where he built a chapel of wattle and daub, and a small hermit's cell for himself. His reputation for learning and piety drew pilgrims wishing to see and scholars wishing to learn. He established a monastery at Clonard, known (based on the Martin of Tours system) for strictness and asceticism. It drew great numbers: at one time supposedly had 300 students in the school.

Finnian's brilliant teaching of Scripture and reputation for asceticism inspired a generation of students, among them a group known as the "Twelve Apostles of Ireland." The Twelve were not designated during his lifetime that we know of; their names were gathered in the 1600s, although this might have been based on earlier unwritten tradition. One was St. Brendan, called the Navigator. The rest were also saints, and many of them were bishops. The list has one fluctuation: Finnian himself is the first of them in some versions; in others, it is St. Ciarán of Saigir.

He is said to have died during the Plague of 549-50. The School lived on, and Clonard grew as a town, becoming the diocesan center of East Meath in the 12th century.

One of the Twelve who went on to become well-known in his own right was St. Columba, who provides us with the earliest sighting of the Loch Ness monster; but that can wait until next time.

Imbolc

The first of February is the date of the Irish quarter-year festival called Imbolc. Imbolc is Old Irish for "in the belly"; it refers to the time of lactation in ewes and lambing, and was the official start of spring.

Imbolc may well be a neolithic tradition [neolithic is from Greek νέος (néos, "new") and λίθος (líthos, "stone") "new stone age"; c.10,200 BCE to c.4500-2000 BCE]. In Leinster, Ireland there is a stone tomb constructed between 3000 and 2500 BCE; the rising sun illuminates the passage into it twice a year, on Imbolc and Samhain.

In the Middle Ages, references to Imbolc are found in Irish literature salting in the 10th century. It became a time to think about the lengthening days and therefore time to think about the plantings ahead. (Conceptually, it was probably a precursor to Groundhog Day.)

The day became connected with St. Brigid, one of the three patron saints of Ireland.* The conflation of the saint with a fertility goddess leant itself to adding a lot of rituals and traditions to the day. Brigid's Crosses were woven from rushes for the occasion by young females, who would carry them while singing a hymn to Brigid.  Brigid would be invited into the home on the eve of Imbolc so that she would bless the house and family members. The ashes of the fire were carefully raked and smoothed that night; in the morning, they would be searched for any disturbance that suggested that Brigid had passed through. Brigid would be called upon to bless livestock for the coming year.

*St. Patrick and St. Columba were the other two.