275 



honour of the church, the maintenance of its servants, the rehef of the 

 sick and the needy, and the extension of hospitality to travellers and 

 strangers. The church of Armagh used likewise to receive certain 

 peculiar dues, according to the regulation called the " the law of 

 Saint Patrick"* and so known from his day. Even this acknow- 

 ledged assessment furnishes a strong evidence of the existence and era 

 of the apostle, while it is singular that even in the days of Charles the 

 First, certain ridges of corn continued to be set apart for the clergy,, 

 with the special name of " Saint Patrick's ridges." — See Curry's 

 Review. 



In one of the frequent pillagings which Armagh sustained during 

 this interval, it has been shewn that a notice occurs of Culdees or 

 Colideij-f" it would have been, however, desirable to know the Irish 

 word which Colgan has so translated "Colidei."J The Four Masters 

 at A. D. 919 speak of the order as transmarine. 



The persecution, which the clergy encountered in Ireland, must 

 necessarily have driven many to foreign countries, and Fleury com- 

 plains§ that in 813 some of them made in France an unfair traffic and 

 livelihood of their spiritual powers for simoniacal purposes. Osbern, 

 whose judgment and eloquence are so much praised by William of 

 Malmesbury,!! in his Life of Saint Dunstan, attributes purer pursuits 

 to the Irish that emigrated to Glastonbury. It would appear that 

 such instructors were indeed greatly needed in England ; " the mo- 



* See ante, p. 257. And see Lanigan's Eccl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 428, and vol. iv. Index. 



t ^nte, p. 262. + See post, Period 4. sect 3. § Hist. EccL lib. 46. s. 5. 



If " Hicque mos cum plerosque turn vehementer adhuc manet Hibemos, quia quod aliis 

 bona voluntas in consuetudinem, hoc illis consuetude vertit in natunun, quorum multi atque 

 illustres" viri divinis ac secularibus lileris nobiliter eruditi, dum relicta Hibernia in terra Anglo- 

 rum peregrinaturi venissent, locumque habitationis suae Glestoniam delegissent j * * * * 

 lii suscipiunt filios nobilium liberalibns studiis imbuendos. * « * * Adest ergo nobilis- 

 simus in Christo puer Dunstanus inter alios unus, &c." — De Reg. Angl. c. 8. 



N N 'i 



