royal family and of the race of the Irish Picts, that he might remain in pilgrimage in his monastery for several years, for Aid had been a very bloodthirsty man, and had slain even the king of Ireland; and that, after Aid had spent some time in his retirement, Findchan, having called in a bishop, had him improperly ordained a priest. ‘The bishop, however, would not venture to lay his hands on the head of Aid, unless Findchan, who was attached to Aid in a carnal way, would place his right hand on his head as a mark of his approval.’ When this ordination became known to Columba he disapproved of it, not because there was anything irregular in the intervention of the bishop, but ‘because Findchan had, contrary to the laws of God and the Church, placed his right hand upon the head of a son of perdition.’[185] On another occasion, when a stranger from the province of Munster, ‘who,’ says Adamnan, ‘concealed through humility the fact that he was a bishop, was invited, on the next Lord’s day, by Columba to join with him in consecrating the body of Christ, that as two priests they might break the bread of the Lord together, Columba, on going to the altar, discovered his rank and thus addressed him:—“Christ bless thee, brother; do thou break the bread alone, according to the episcopal rite; for I know now thou art a bishop. Why hast thou disguised thyself so long, and prevented our giving thee the honour due to thee?”’[186] We thus see two of the episcopal functions—viz., that of ordination and that of celebrating the eucharist with the pontifical rite—as well as the honour due to those possessing episcopal orders, as fully recognised as was the jurisdiction of the presbyter-abbot over them. The monastery founded by Columba in the island was, like many others of the island monasteries, one which was to consist of one hundred and fifty monks, or persons under the monastic rule. It is thus described in a stanza quoted in the old Irish Life:— Illustrious the soldiers who were in Hii, Thrice fifty in monastic rule, With their curachs across the sea; And for rowing threescore men. [Sidenote: Site of the original wooden monastery.]