Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 2 (of 3), Church and cultureSkene, W. F. (William Forbes)
History
Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 2 (of 3), Church and culture
Skene, W. F. (William Forbes)
Celts -- Scotland; Civilization, Celtic; Scotland -- Antiquities, Celtic; Scotland -- History -- To 1603
The ancient document termed the Catalogue of the Saints, which affords
us such a valuable clue to the main characteristics of the Irish Church
during these different periods, leaves us at the period of the great
pestilence in the year 666; but we find that after that date the
nomenclature of the Continental anchorites begins to appear, in an Irish
form, attached to the eremitical class in the Irish Church. In lieu of
the term _Deicolæ_, which as we have seen, was from the earliest period
the designation of those who adopted what they considered the higher
form of religious life, peculiarly the ‘cultus’ of God and the Father,
we find these Irish anchorites having the term of _Ceile De_ applied to
them. These terms, though not etymologically equivalent, may be
considered as correlative,[474] and intended to represent the same
class; and as _Christicola_ becomes in Irish _Celechrist_, so _Deicola_
assumes in Irish the form of _Ceile De_.[475] There is a poem in the
Leabhar Breac attributed to St. Mochuda of Rathen, who died in 636,
which gives us a picture of the constituent elements of the Irish Church
at this period. It bears this title: ‘Here begins the rule of Mochuta of
Rathen, inculcating ten commandments upon every person;’ and consists of
nine sections. Of these, the title of the second is, ‘Of the occupations
of a bishop here;’ of the third, ‘Of the abbot of a church;’ of the
fourth, ‘Of the occupations of a priest;’ of the fifth, ‘Shouldst thou
be a person’s _anmchara_, or soul’s friend?’ of the sixth, ‘Of the
occupations of a monk;’ and of the seventh, ‘Of the _Cele De_, or of the
clerical recluse,’[476] thus distinguishing the _Cele De_ from the monk.
[Sidenote: _Deicolæ_ and _Ceile De_ show the same characteristics.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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