112 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



" Another Difference is, that the Eastern Columns were only 3 Feet in Diameter at the Extremity, 

 as appears from Evagrius, Nicephorus and others : Whereas those among us appear to be 8 Feet 

 in the Diameter at the Base, and some more, and the Diminution to the Extremity does not seem 

 to the Eye (for I was never on the Top of any of them) to be above a fourth part, which also cor- 

 responds with the Rules of Architecture ; so that the Irish Tower, being 6 Feet in the Diameter at 

 the Extremity, afforded Room to the Solitary to stretch himself at Length in it, which he could not 

 do in the Eastern Pillar. But may not this Difference be accounted for from the Relaxation of Dis- 

 cipline from what it was in the first Institution of the Stylite Order by Symeon ; as we often read 

 to have been practised in other religious Orders, which has from Time to Time caused such infinite 

 Reformations among them ?" 



The difference of diameter, here acknowledged, appears to me to be quite 

 sufficient to prove the fallacy of Harris's speculation, for as to the relaxation of 

 discipline, &c., which he supposes might have caused this difference, it is mere 

 idle conjecture, and unworthy of notice. 



Harris further on says : 



" The Habitations of these Anachorites are called by some of our Writers Inclusoriu in Latin, 

 and Arcti Inclusorii Ergastula, the Prisons of a narrow Indosure. Particularly in the Life of Dun- 

 chad 0-Braoin, who was Abbot of Clonmacnois, and having obtained a very popular Reputation for 

 Learning and Piety, to avoid the air of vain Glory, he betook himself to an Anachoretical Life, 

 and shut himself up in Arcti Inclusorii Ergastulo, in the Prison of a narrow Indosure, and employed 

 himself wholly in the Contemplation of God and Eternity, where he died in 987." 



He adds : 



" I will not take upon me to affirm, that it was in one of these Towers at Clonmacnois, (where 

 there are more than one of the Kind) that he shut himself up ; but the Expression used upon the 

 Occasion may be very well adapted to them." 



Iii this statement Harris has not dealt fairly with his readers. In the first 

 place it would have been impossible for him, as I believe, to have pointed out 

 any other authority for calling the cells of the anchorites Arcti Inclusorii Er- 

 gastula, than that single one in the Life of Dunchad O'Braoin ; and, secondly, he 

 leads the reader to infer that it might have been in one of the Towers of Clon- 

 macnoise that the abbot secluded himself, and there died. This he must have 

 known to be contrary to fact. According to his Life, as given by Colgan, 

 Dunchad had led this sort of life when in a private station, from which being 

 dragged, on the death of the Abbot Tuathal, he was forced to take on him the 

 labours of the abbacy. Still, however, longing for a retired state, he repaired 



