424 Mr. PETEIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



" In olid Insuld, quce dim Inis-iarthuir, hodie Ard-oilen, c. 22, hsec Insula est etiam in Oceano, 

 distatq'ue paucis leucis versus Occidentem ab Immagia, eamq'ue post S. Fechinum sua anachoresi, 

 et arctissima vita plurimum nobilitauit S. Gormgalius, vir celebratae sanctitatis, qui obijt an. 1017. 

 die 5. August!, quo die iuxta Marianum eius seruatur natalis; de cuius encomijs et reliquijs extat 

 psenes me B. Corrani, qui eodem tempore floruit, elegans et pijssimum poema. Vide QuatuorMa- 

 gistros in Annalibus ad annum 1017. quo dicunt Beatum Gormgalium Archisinedrum, siue princi- 

 palem Patrem spiritualem totius Hibernise obijsse." Ada SS., p. 141, n. 13. 



And again, in his account of the churches on the Aran islands, where, by a 

 strange mistake, he confounds this island of Ardoilen with Inis Airthir, the 

 smallest of the islands of Aran, he preserves to us the names of several of the 

 hermits who resided here with St. Gormgall, about the close of the tenth century. 



"Ibidem etiam colitur S. Gormgalius die 5. Jlugusti : De quo Quatuor Magistri in Annalibus ad 



annum 1017- scribut, S. Gormgalius de Ard-oilen, praecipuus Hibernorum Synedrus, siue Spiritualis 



Pater obiit : Memorat etiam Beatus Cororanus eimdem sceculi author in suo Panegyrico de S. Gorm- 



galio ibi quiescant Sancti, Mcelsuthunius, Celeckarius, Dubthacus, Dunadach, Cellachus, Tressachus, 



Vltanus, Maelmartinus, Coromacchus, Conmachus, et alij plures." Acta SS., p. 715. 



The preceding facts leave little doubt, I think, that this monastery on High 

 Island was for monks of the hermit class ; and it seems very probable that most 

 of the monasteries in similar insular situations, of which the ruins still remain, 

 in Ireland, were of the same description. But it is obvious that there were at 

 the same time in Ireland almost innumerable coenobitic establishments, in which 

 vast numbers of monks lived in communities, and had every thing in common, 

 as at Bangor, where, it is stated, there were no less than three thousand monks ; 

 and Rahin, where St. Carthagh had eight hundred and sixty-seven monks, who 

 supported themselves by the labour of their own hands. Yet it seems certain 

 that such communities, unlike those in the East, of whom Epiphanius speaks, 

 did not dwell in any single building, but in a multitude of separate cells, ar- 

 ranged in streets in the vicinity of the church ; and hence tradition points out 

 to this day the situation of such streets, adjacent to the abbey churches, and 

 called such in many parts of Ireland. Such communities would, however, re- 

 quire at least one large building, to answer the purpose of a common refectory ; 

 and that they had such is proved by innumerable references in the Irish annals, 

 and in the oldest of the Irish ecclesiastical authorities. It will be seen that 

 the name of such a building was Proinnteach, or dining-house, as in the following 

 example from an ancient poem in the Leabhar Breac, fol. 131, a. b., called the 

 Rule of Mochuda, of Raithin : 



