EARLY CELTIC CHURCHES OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 195 



great number of its bishops; the second, the number of its 

 presbyters in comparison of its bishops ; the tliird, the number 

 of its anchorite or hermit monks. The first stage was 

 distinguished also by the unity of its liturgical forms, a natural 

 feature in a Church into ^yhich these were adopted from 

 without. The second, by the yariety of these forms, which 

 were, it appears, at first deriyed from the teaching of three 

 Welsh saints, Gildas, Cadoc and Dayid, but wliich did, as we 

 know, yary in the yarious monastic foundations, as the rules 

 of each monastery differed from one another ; indeed, one 

 special feature of the liturgical forms of Gaul and Ireland 

 consists in the yariety of their collects and a certain freedom of 

 detail.* 



The extraordinary passion for the anchorite life in its extremest 

 austerity, here spoken of as the third stage, was a feature that 

 impressed upon the natiye Cluistianity of these islands an almost 

 Oriental complexion. It did not, so far as we know, come into 

 general fayour in the first period, though it was a usual and 

 persistent condition of life throughout the entire course of 

 Irish Celtic Christianity from the sixth century up to the 

 ninth century. Indeed, Irish hermits haye suryiyed in 

 isolated spots into quite modern times. 



"We will now, bearing in mind these general distinctions, 

 inquire what were the special features which we find impressed 

 upon the actual natiye Church. 



Its first and chylous characteristic was the rapid and extra- 

 ordinary growth of monasteries all oyer the country. At the 



"First, in the time of Patrick, all were bisliops, famous and holy and 

 full of the Holy Ghost ; 350 in number, founders of churches. They had 

 one head, Christ ; and one chief, Patrick. They observed one mass, one 

 celebration, one tonsure from ear to ear, they rejected not the services 

 and society of women. 



" Secondly, Catholic presbyters. Tn this order were few bishops and 

 many priests (or })resbyters>, in number 300. They had one head, our 

 Lord ; they celebrated cliti'erent masses and had difierent riUes ; one 

 Easter, on the fourteenth morn after the vernal equinox, one tonsure 

 from ear to ear ; they refused the services of women, separating them 

 from the monasteries. They received a mass from Bishop David and 

 Docns {i.e., Cadoc) and Gildas, the Britons. ... 



" In the third order of saints were holy presbyters, and a few bishops, 

 100 in number, who dwelt in desert places and lived on herbs and water 

 and on alms ; they shunned private property, despising all earthly 

 things. They had clifFerent rules and masses and different tOLSures, and 

 different times for observing the Pascal Festival."'— Quoted by Ussher, 

 W^orks, vol. vi, p. 477. 



