208 



MISS ELEANOR H. HULL, ON THE 



name " Church " ; the only derivation we can find is from the 

 Greek. And the other is that we have carefully orientated our 

 churches ; that in itself is an evidence of Eastern origin. 



Such a paper as this, with its admirable illustrations of the subject, 

 is very valuable to all of us. 



Dr. W. Woods Smyth. — Mr. Chairman, I am charmed to have 

 listened to this very interesting paper. Being an Irishman, I was 

 specially interested, and also that fact places me in a difficult 

 position — I have to differ a little from ■Miss Hull, and it is ver}^ 

 hard for an Irishman to differ from a lady. 



As it happens, I had to write a series of articles for a religious 

 paper on "Religious Movements in Time Past" ; and I had to spend 

 a long time in the British Museum looking up manuscripts, and I 

 could find no evidence of the Celtic Church being, at any time, 

 other than Eastern. After the dispersion occurred from Palestine,, 

 people spread abroad preaching the Gospel, and without touching on 

 Rome they swept over Europe, far and near. 



It was most interesting to hear Miss Hull tell how the British 

 missionaries spread over Europe. These men were the most 

 energetic missionaries. The zeal of the missionaries of to-day is 

 nothing to that of those Celtic missionaries. If a stranger arrived 

 from Ireland they crowded round him and asked, " What is the name 

 of your people 1 " " Where is your country " They did not go out 

 in two and two, as our missionaries are sent ; every leading man 

 took twelve others with him and went out to these countries — so 

 that they evangelized France, Switzerland, Germany and the North 

 of Italy — the whole of the Rhineland. 



Another point. At the time of the Reformation, and afterwards 

 in Elizabeth's time, when it was required of the Irish bishops that 

 they should adopt the reformed faith and reformed practices, 

 the Irish bishops, the successors of St. Patrick, did so, with the 

 exception of two ; one died soon after, and the other left the 

 (ountry, so that they left no successors, and therefore the Irish 

 Episcopal Church of to-day is the representative of the church 

 founded ]>y St. Patrick. 



Another point. Some of these Iiish monks were married ;, 

 they took no vow when they entered the monastery, and 

 tliey could leave it wlicn tliey wished — it was a life of perfect 

 freedom. 



