206 



MISS ELEANOE H. HULL, ON THE 



in tonsure, in the date of Easter, etc., which seem now to ns 

 matters of little importance, but which were to them the symbol 

 of their origin and organisation, and with which their history 

 and traditions, the affections of the people and the independence 

 of the Church were bound up. 



That there was any sense of antagonism to or any lack of 

 respect for the Eoman see I find no warrant whatever for 

 supposing ; to imagine this is to read back into the seventh 

 century the antagonisms that belong to the sixteenth or the 

 twentieth eras ; but to conclude that they were under the 

 domination of Eome is to misread the history of their slow and 

 unwilling adhesion to the new system in Britain. From this 

 time forward the Gallican peculiarities drop out of the Irish 

 service-books, the most important of which, the Stoicc Missal, 

 shows signs, unfortunately, of having been largely erased and 

 re-written in accordance with Roman ritual. Yet, even so, they 

 retain many curious and interesting forms. But to tell the 

 st'jry of the later Celtic Church does not belong to our duty 

 to-day. 



Discussion. 



The Chairman (Lieut. -General Sir H. L. Geary). — AVe are very 

 much indebted to Miss Hull for this most interesting lecture on the 

 Celtic Church, and for the pains she has been at to collect all this 

 varied amount of information. One of the most interesting points 

 that struck me was the undoubted fact that the early Christianity 

 of Ireland — the Celtic Church — came direct from the East. We 

 see it evidenced from their groups of seven churches in parts of the 

 country, from the round towers, and from all the ornaments that 

 have been found. I have seen a good many of these ornaments — 

 in Dublin, at the Koyal Irish Academy — and they nearly all — 

 certainly all the oldest — are undoubtedly Oriental. I am very glad 

 that Miss Hull has adopted the latest conclusion that St. Patrick 

 came from AVales. I never for a moment held with the Dumbarton 

 theory of his origin ; and I think this opinion is borne out by the 

 route the Saint took when he came back again for the pui-pose of 

 converting the Irish : he came across from the Bristol Channel to 



