church of the ancient religion; and in the lesser a chapel wherein a few celibates, called _Cœlicolæ_ or _Colidei_, devoutly serve. Into the greater no woman or any animal of the feminine gender ever enters but it immediately dies. This has been proved by many experiments. In the lesser isle no one can die; hence it is called “insula viventium,” or the island of the living.’[481] [Sidenote: _Ceile De_ brought under the canonical rule.] Like the _Deicolæ_, they evidently came under the canonical rule. The Irish Annals record the following singular entry:—‘In this year (811) the _Cele De_ came over the sea with dry feet without a vessel; and a written roll was given him from heaven, out of which he preached to the Irish; and it was carried up again when the sermon was finished. This ecclesiastic (literally son of the church) used to go every day southwards across the sea, after finishing his sermon.’[482] Eliminating the miraculous element, we have here an ecclesiastic, whose title is given in the Irish form of _Cele De_, coming from the Continent with a written precept, which he urged upon the Irish. This was sixty-eight years after Saint Chrodegang framed his rule for the canonical life, and also after the revised rule was framed containing the urgent appeal of the _Deicola_ to all the _Deicolæ_ over the world, and only five years before the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle. We may therefore reasonably conclude that what the ecclesiastic called the _Cele De_ introduced into Ireland was the canonical rule. There is also preserved in the Leabhar Breac a prose rule attributed to Maelruain of Tamhlacht, who died in 792, and the title is ‘Here beginneth the rule of the _Cele De_, from what Maelruain composed.’[483] This rule, however, was evidently not intended for a monastic body, and shows more resemblance to the canonical rule.[484] The _Cele De_ are only mentioned in a few places in Ireland. Nine only are enumerated by Dr. Reeves. These are Tamhlacht, if Maelruain’s establishment belongs to this order, Armagh, Clonmacnois, Clondalkin, Monaincha, Devenish, Clones, Pubble and Scattery. These could hardly then be the representatives of the great monastic church, but must have been a new order which had not spread very widely among the churches; and Dr. Reeves admits that ‘possibly the institution of Maelruain may have borrowed from or possessed some features in common with the order of canons; for certain it is that in after ages both the Keledei of Scotland and the Colidei of Ireland exhibited in their discipline the main characteristics of secular canons.’[485] Thus we find he again says, ‘the _Cele De_ of Armagh occupying very much the same position as the Colidei of York, as canons of the cathedral, and latterly having the name Latinised into the same form.’ [Sidenote: _Cele De_, called _Keledei_ in Scotland, and first appear in territory of southern Picts.] [Sidenote: Legend of Saint Servanus.]