Macalistkk — The History and Antiquities of Inis Ccaltra. 105 



warming themselves at the fire, and asked Anmchad to give them to drink. 

 This he was unwilling to do without penuissiou, but they urged him, and at 

 last he yielded, though he was careful to send the wine to his Superior for his 

 benediction before offering it to his guests. On the following day, " Cortram " 

 asked Anmchad wherefore he had sent the wine to him, and Anmchad con- 

 fessed what had happened. His action was accounted a breach of discipline 

 so heinous that the abbot pronounced upon him a sentence of banishment 

 from Ireland. He came to Fulda, where he passed the remainder of his 

 days as an indusus. Marianus tells us that he had -heard the story from his 

 own Superior, Tighernach, at Moville, as a warning when he had himself 

 committed some trifling offence in his (Tighernach's) presence ; and, whether 

 by coincidence or not,' Marianus himself became an indusus in the same 

 monastery that had witnessed the austerities of Anmchad, and for ten years 

 celebrated mass over his tomb. A certain holy monk of Fulda, by name 

 William, pi-ayed Anmchad (already in his grave) that he would bless him; 

 and he related to Marianus himself that in the following night he had a 

 vision of the saint, standing on his tomb and shining with a great light, 

 extending his hand over him in benediction ; while Marianus himself, shut 

 up in Anmchad's cell, had for the whole of that night enjoyed a sweet 

 odour. 



An interesting account of the life of an indusus will be found in the 

 preface to MacCarthy's edition of the Codex Palatino-Yaticanus, in the 

 Todd Lectures Series of this Academy : the fact there noticed, that the 

 discipline of inclusion is especially a feature of the Benedictine rule, adds 

 some point to the passage quoted above from the metrical Life of St. Brigid. 



The name, whether " Corcram," or " Cortram," is clearly impossible, and 

 must be a corruption. Colgan made the obvious guess that it should be read 

 " Corcran," and identified the severe abbot of the story with a distinguished 

 ecclesiastic of that name, author of a letter to the monks of Ard Oilean 

 on the subject of the virtues and relics of St Gormgall of that monastery. 

 This Corcran, who is described by the Annals of Ulster in terms no less 

 magnificent than " head of all Europe in faith and in wisdom ", died as an 

 anchorite at Lismore, according to the annalists, in 1040. There is not the 

 slightest evidence to connect this Corcran with Inis Cealtra;'- and the 



1 Marianus says : " Ita Tigeruach . . . mihi culpabili in aliqua levi culpa pronimtiavit, " 

 which does not necessarily imply more than that Tighernach held up the case of Anmchad 

 as an awful example. Florence of Worcester takes it in the same sense. MacCarthy 

 understands that Tighernach banished Marianus for the " levis culpa," as the abbot of Inis 

 Oealtra had banished Anmchad. 



^ Archdali makes Corci'an abbot of luis Cealtra, but in this he is merely accepting 

 Ooli^an's auess. 



