Columba Consecrates the King of the Scots — He Goes to the National Assembly of Ireland, Defends the Independence of the Hiberno-Scotic Colony, and Saves the Corporation of Bards

COLUMBA CONSECRATES THE KING OF THE SCOTS. — HE GOES TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF IRELAND, DE- FENDS THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE HIBERNO-SCOTIC COLONY, AND SAVES THE CORPORATION OF BARDS. Passionate solicitude of Columba for his relatives and countrymen. — He protects King Aldan in his struggle with the Anglo-Saxons of Northumbria. — The same king is crowned by Columba at lona; the first example of a Christian consecration of kings. — The Stone of Destiny: the descendants of Ardan. — Synod or parliament of Drumceitt in Ireland. — Aedh, king of Ireland, and Aldan, king of the Irish colonists in Scotland. — The independence of the new Scottish kingdom is recognized through the influence of Columba. — He interposes in favor of the bards, whom the king had proposed to outlaw. — Power and excesses of that corporation. — By means of Columba, the good grain is not burned with the weeds. — The bards' song of gratitude in honor of their savior. — Columba, reproved by his disciple, desires that this song should not be repeated during his life. — Superstitious regard attached to it after his death. — Intimate union between music, poetry, and religion in Ireland. — The bards, transformed into minstrels, are the first champions of national independence and Catholic faith against the English conquest. — Fiercely assailed, they yet continue to exist up to our own day. — Moore's Irish Melodies. — The Celtic muse at the service of the vanquished in the Highlands of Scotland as in Ireland.

It would not, however, be natural to suppose that the mission of Columba among the Ficts could entirely absorb his life and soul. That faithful love for his race and country which had moved him with compassion for the young Irish girl in captivity among the Picts did not permit him to remain indifferent to the wars and revolutions which were at the bottom of all national life among the Irish Scots as well as the Irish colony in Scotland. There was not a more marked feature in his character than his constant solicitude, his compassionate sympathy, as well after as before his removal to lona, for the bloody struggles in which his companions and Anxious relatives in Ireland were so often engaged. Nothing was nearer to his heart than the claim of kindred j for that reason alone he occupied himself without cease with the affairs of individual relatives. " This man," he said to himself^ " is of my race; I must help him. It is my duty to pray for him, because he is of the same stock as myself. This other is of kia to my mother," &c. And then he would add, " My friends and kindred, who are descended like me from the Nialls, see how they fight! " 1^2 And from the far distance of his desert isle he fought with them in heart and thought, as of old he had aided them in person. He breathed from afar the air of battle; he divined the issue by what his companions considered a prophetic instinct, and told it to his monks, to his Irish countrymen, and to the Caledonian Scots who sought him in his new dwelling. With better reason still his soul kindled within him when he foresaw any struggle in which his new neighbors the Dalriadian colonists were to be engaged, either with the Picts, whom they were one day to conquer, or with the Anglo-Saxons.

One day towards the end of his life, being alone ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ with Diarmid his minister (as the monk attached his personal service was called), he cried out all once, " The bell! let the bell be rung instantly " f;^f^^^ The bell of the modest monastery was nothing bet- their eneter than one of the little square bells made of beaten ™"'^' iron, which are still shown in Irish museums, exactly similar to those which are worn by the cattle in Spain and the Jura. It was enough for the necessities of the little insular community. At its sound the monks hastened to throw themselves on their knees around their father. *' Now," said he, " let us pray — let us pray with intense fervor for our people, and for King Aidan; for at this very moment the battle has begun between them and the barbarians." When their prayers had lasted some time, he said, " Behold, the barbarians flee! Aidan is victorious! " ^^

The barbarians, against whom Columba rang his bells and called for the prayers of his monks, were the Anglo-Saxons

132 «« Quia est mihi cognationalis, et ex meae matris parentela.... Mei cosnationales amici.... Nellis nepotes." — Adamn., ii. 40; i.; i.

'^^ " Subito ad suum dicit ministratorcm Diormitium, Cioccam piilsa.... Kunc intente pro hoc populo et Aidano regc oremus; liac cum liora incipiunt belhiin.... Nunc barbari in fugam vcrtuntur, Aidanoque quanquaui infelix concessa victoria." — Adamx., i. 8. Tliis quanquain infelix refers to the fact that in this battle, de hello Miathorum (as this chapter of Adamnan is entitled), the king lost three hundred and three men and two of his sons. His third son also fell in battle against the Saxons: " In Saxonia Celtica in strage." — Ibid., c. 9. Adamnan speaks of the war as de bello Miathorum, but he does not explain if these Miaihi, or Mecclcc, who are always associated with the Caledonians, were the allies or the enemies of the Dalriadiaa Scots. of Northumbria, who were still pagans, and whose descendants were destined to owe the inestimable blessings of Christianity to the monks of lona and the spiritual posterity of Columba. But at that time the invaders thought only of taking a terrible revenge for the evils which Britain, before they conquered it, had endured from Scoto-Pictish incursions, and of extending their power ever farther and farther on the Caledonian side. As for King Aidan,!^^ he caildon^au bad replaced his cousin-german. King Connall, who iiad guaranteed to Columba the possession of lona, as chief of the Dalriadian colony in Argyll. His accession to the throne took place in 574, eleven years after the arrival of Columba; and nothing proves more fully the influence acquired by the Irish missionary during this short interval than A'idan's resolution to have his coronation blessed by the Abbot of lona. Columba, though his friend, did not wish him to be king, preferring his brother; but an angel appeared to him three times in succession, and commanded him to consecrate A'idan according to the ceremony prescribed in a book covered with crystal which was left with him for that purpose.135 Columba, who was then in a neighboring island, went back to lona, where he was met by the new king. The abbot, obedient to the celestial vision, laid his hauds upon the head of A'idan, blessed him, and ordained him king.^^e jjg inaugurated thus not only a new kingdom, but a new rite, which became at a later date the most august solemnity of Christian national life. The coronation of A'idan is the first authentic instance known in the West. Columba thus assumed, in respect to the Scotic or Dalriadian kingdom, the same authority with which the abbots of Armagh, successors of St. Patrick, were already invested in respect to the kings of Ireland. That this supremo authority and these august functions were conferred upon abbots instead of bishops, has been the cause of much surprise. But at that period of the ecclesiastical history of 134 i'_3<]jan, rex Scottorum qui Britanniam inhabitant." — Bede, i. 34. • '^^ "Qui in manu vitreum ordinationis regum habebat librum."— Adamn., iii. 5. This is the famous Vitreus Codex which, according to a narrative given by Keeves, was only shown to Columba by the angel, and did not remain in his hands.

U6 " Aidanum, iisdem adventantibus diebus, regeni, sicut erat jussus, ordinavit... imponensque manuin super caput ejus, ordinans beuedixit." —Marteno {De Antiquis Ritibus Ecdesicc, vol. iii. 1. ii. c. 10, in the treatise De Solemni Regum Benedidione) says that the consecration of Aldan is the first known example of that solemnity.

Celtic nations the episcopate was entirely in the shade; the abbots and monks alone appear to have been great and influential, and the successors of" St. Columba long retained this singular supremacy over the bishops.

According to Scotch national tradition, the new king A'idan was consecrated by Columba upon a oi^^^t^^^ great stone called the Stone of Fate. This stone was afterwards transferred to Dunstaflfnage Castle, the ruins of which may be seen upon the coast of Argyll, not far from lona; then to the Abbey of Scone, near Perth; and was finally carried away by Edward I., the cruel conqueror of Scotland, to Westminster, where it still serves as a pedestal for the throne of the kings of England on the day of their coronation. The solemn inauguration of the kingdom of A'idan marks the historical beginning of the Scotch monarchy, which before that period was more or less fabulous. A'idan was the first prince of the Scots who passed from the rank of territorial chief to that of independent king, and head of a dynasty whose descendants were one day to reign over the three kingdoms of Great Britain.i^T

But to secure the independence of the new Scottish royalty, or rather of the young nation whose stormy and poetic history was thus budding under the breath and blessing of Columba, it was necessary to break the link of subjugation or vassalage which bound the Dalriadian colony to the Irish kings. All this time it had remained tributary to the monarchs of the island which it had left nearly a century before to establish itself in Caledonia. To obtain by peaceable means the abolition of this tribute, Columba— who was Irish by heart as well as by birth, yet who at the same time was, like the Dalriadians, his kinsmen, an emigrant in Caledonia, and, like the new king, descended from the monarchs of "^ Aldan married a British wife, a daughter of those Britons who occupied the banks of the Clyde, and were neighbors of the Scots. With them for his alUes, he made war vigorously, though unfortunately, as will be afterwards seen, upon the Anglo-Saxons. He survived Columba, and died in GOO, after a reign of thirty-two years. Ills direct descendants reigned up to C89. They were then replaced by the house of Lorn, another branch of tho first Ualriadian colony, whose most illustrious prince, Kenneth Macalpinc, reduced the Ticts to recognize him as their king in 842. The famous Macbeth and his conqueror Malcolm Canmore, the husband of St. Margaret, were both descended from Aidan^ or of the lineage of Fergus. The male line of these Scottish kings of Celtic race ended only with Alexander 111. in 1283. The dynasties of Bruce and Stuart were of the female line. According to local and domestic traditions, the great modern clans of Macquarie, Mackinnon, Mackenzie, Mackintosh, MacGregor, Maclean, Macnab, and Macnaughten are descended from tho primitive Dalriadians.

Ireland — must have seemed the mediator indicated by nature. He accepted the mission, and returned to Ireland, which he had thought never to see again, in company with the king whom he had just crowned, to endeavor to come to an agreement with the Irish monarch and the other princes and chiefs assembled at Drumkeath. His impartiality was above all suspicion; for the ver}^ day of the coronation of A'idan he had announced to him, in the name of God, that the prosperity of the new Scotic kingdom depended upon peace with Ireland, its cradle. In the midst of the ceremony he had said aloud to the king whom he had crowned, " Charge your sons, and let them charge their grandchildren, never to expose their kingdom to be lost by their fault. The moment that they attempt any fraudulent enterprise against my spiritual descendants here, or against my countrymem and kindred in Ireland, the hand of God will Aveigh heavily upon them, the heart of men will be raised against them, and the victory of their enemies will be assured." ^^

The king of Ireland, Diarmid, who was, like Columba, of the race of Niall, but of the Nialls of the North, and whom our saint had so violently resisted, had died immediately after the voluntary exile of Columba. He perished, as has been mentioned, by the hand of a prince called Black Aedh, chief of the Antrim Dalriadians, who remained in Ireland when a part of their clan emigrated to Scotland. Some time afterwards the supreme throne of Ireland fell to another Aedh, of the southern branch of the race of Niall, and consequently of the same stock as Columba.^^^ He was also the

"^ " Inter ordinationis verba... prophetare coepit dicens: Tu filiis commenda ut et ipsi filiis et nepotibus et posteris suis commendent ne per consilia mala eorum sceptrum regni hujus de raanibus suis perdant. ... In me et in posteros nieos... aut adversus cognatos nieos qui sunt in Hibernia." — Adamn., iii. 5. Colgan, in remarking this passage in his preface, cannot refrain from returning sadly upon the atrocities committed in Ireland by the Scots and Britons of his time, under the last descendants of the Dalriadian dynasty, James I. and Charles I. '• Unde moderni Scoto-Britanni, qui cognatos sancti Columbaj in Hibernia nostris diebus ferro et flamma infestant, e suis sedibus pcUunt et in ore crudelis gladii mactant, debent praedictam vindictam ore veridico Dei prophetas praedictam formidare, si inter posteros Aidani regis velint numerari; si non, certe non minus metuenda sunt ilia sacri eloquii oracula, quibus dicitur: Qui gladio perimit, gladio peribit." —Trias Tlianm., p. 320.

"* The poet-historian, Thomas Moore, by a singular confusion, looks upon Aedh the Black, the murderer of King Diarmid, and Aedh, son of Aimnire, the king of the Drumkeath parliament, as the same person. —History of Ireland, pp. 254, 263, Paris edition. I spare the reader all the other Aedhs or Aldus, who are to be found mixed up with the history of the age of Columba in the inextricable Irish genealogies. My learned friend, M.Foisset,

THE ArOSTLE OF CALEDONIA. 59

friend and benefactor of his emigrant cousin, to whom he had given before his exile the site of Derry/*o i\^q jj^Qg^. jjj^. portant of his Irish foundations. The first synod or parliament of Aedh's reign had been convoked in a place called Druraceittji"^^ the Wliale's Back, situated in his special patrimony, not far from the sea and the gulf of Lough Foyle, where Coluraba had embarked, and at the further end of which was his dear monastery of Derry. It was there that he returned with his royal client, the new king of the Caledonian Scots, whose confessor, or, as the Irish onre',andt termed it, friend of his soul, he had become.^^^ The ^"no-^f'the two kings, Aedh and Aidan, presided at this assembly, which sat for fourteen months, and the recollection of which has been preserved among the Irish people, the most faithful nation in the world, for more than a thousand years.

The Irish lords and clergy encamped under tents like soldiers during the entire duration of this parliament.!*^ The most important question discussed among them was no doubt that of the tribute exacted from the king of the Dalriadians. It does not appear that the Irish king demanded tribute on account of the new kingdom founded by his ancient subjects, but rather on account of that part of Ireland itself, at present the county of Antrim, from whence the Dalriadian colonists had gone, and which was the hereditary patrimony of their new king.ii^ This was precisely the position in which the Norman princes, who had become kings of England, while

like a zealous Burgundian as he is, has pointed out to me the resemblance between the name of Aedh, which occurs so often among the Irish princes and kings, and that of the ^dui, the first inhabitants of Burgundy. He thinks, with reason, that the Celts of Gaul, conquered by Cajsar, had also lived, like their brethren in Ireland and Scotland, in clans, and is persuaded that the iEdui of Bibracte signified originally the clan of the sous of Aedh.

''*'^ Ltncu's Camhrensis Eversus, vol. ii. c. 9, p. 16.

"' Dorsum CetcB in Latin, Drum Ceitt or Ceat in Irish, at present called Drumkcath, near Newtown Limavaddy, in the county of Londonderry.

'^^ Irish MS. quoted by lieeves, p. Ixxvi. note 4.

'•^ " Condictum rcgum." — Adamnan. " Collectis totius regni optimatibus, universoque clero ... ad instar militum per papiiiones et tentoria turmatim dispersi." — O'Donnell, book iii. c. 2, 5. " Hiberniaj proceribus Drum-Keathian ad leges oondendas coeuntibus et quatuordecim niensibus illic liajrentibus." Lynch, c. 9. Colgan, who lived in 1G45, narrates that the site of the assembly then was still frequented by numerous pilgrims, and that a procession was formerly celebrated there on the day of All-Saints " cum summo omnium vicinarum partium accursu." Acta Sanctorum JlibernicB, vol. i. p. 204. The site is still to be seen upon an elevation at Roe Park, near Newtown Limavaddy. — Keeves, p. '67.

"* Mooke's History of Ireland, vol. i. c. 12, p. 256. still dukes of Normandy, found themselves, five centuries later, in respect to the kings of France. Columba, the friend of both kings, was Commissioned to solve the difficultj. According to some Irish authors, the Abbot

recf^niTed

°^" ^^^'"^f ^hcn the decisive moment arrived, refused to decide, and transferred to another monk, St. Colman, the responsibility of pronouncing the judgment. At all events, the Irish king renounced all suzerainty over the king of the Dalriadians of Albania, as Scotland was then called. Independence and freedom from all tribute were granted to the Albanian Scots, who, on their side, promised perpetual alliance and hospitality to their Irish countrymen.i'i^

Columba had another cause to plead at the parliament of

Drumceitt, which was almost as dear to his heart as the independence of the Scotic kingdom and colony of which he was the spiritual head. The question in this case was nothing less than that of the existence of a corporation as powerful as, and more ancient and national than, the clergy itself: it concerned the bards, who were at once poets and genealogists, historians and musicians, and whose high position and popular ascendency form pne of the most characteristic features of Irish history. The entire nation, always enamoured of its traditions, its fabulous antiquity, and local and domestic glory, surrounded with ardent and respectful sympathy the men who could clothe in a poetic dress all the lore and superstitions of the past, as well as the passions and interests of the present. In the annals of Ireland, as far back as they can be traced, the bards or ollamhh, who were regarded as oracles of knowledge, of poetry, history, and music, are always to be found. They were trained from their infancy with the greatest care in special communities, and so greatly honored that the first place at the royal table, after that of the king himself, was reserved for them.^**^ Since the introduction of Christianity, the bards, like the Druids of earlier times, whose; successors they are supposed to have been, continued to form a powerful and popular band. They were then divided into three orders the Filcas,\fho sang of religion and of war; the i>re7iO«s, whose name is associated with the ancient laws of the country, which they versified and recited; i^' the SeanacJiies, who en- "^ Reeves, pp. Ixxvi. and 92.

"^ Eugene O'Curry's Lectures on the 3JS. Materials of Irish History. Dublin, 1861.

'*' The code known under the name of Laws of the Brehons continued to shrined in verse the national history and antiquities, and, above all, the genealogies and prerogatives of the ancient families who were specially dear to the national and warlike passions of the Irish people. They carried this guardianship of historical recollections and relics so far as to watch over the boundaries of each province and family domain.^^^ They took part, like the clergy, in all the assemblies, and with still greater reason in all the tights. They were overwhelmed with favors and privileges by the kings and petty princes, on whom their songs and their harp could alone bestow a place in history, or even a good name among their contemporaries. But naturally this great power had produced many abuses, and at the moment of which we speak, the popularity of the bards had suffered an eclipse. A violent opposition had been raised against them. Their great number, their insolence, their insatiable greed, had all been made subjects of reproach; and, above all, they were censured for having made traffic and a trade of their poetry — of lavishing praises upon the nobles and princes who were liberal to them, and making others the subject of satirical invectives, which tho charm of their verse spread but too readily, to the great injury of the honor of families. The enmities raised whom against them had come to such a point, that King ^roifosis'tS Aedh felt himself in sufficient force to propose the assembly of Drumceitt the radical abolition of this dangerous order, and the banishment, and even outlawry, if not, as some say, the massacre of all the bards.

It is not apparent that the clergy took any part whatever in this persecution of a body which they might well have regarded as their rivals. The introduction of Christianity into the country of Ossian, under St, Patrick, seems at all, to have affected the position of the bards. They became Christians without either inflicting or suffering any violence, and they were in general the auxiliaries and friends of the bishops, monks, and saints. Each monastery, like each prince and lord, possessed a bard, whose oflSce it was to sing

regulate the civil life of the Irish even under the English conquest; it was only abulislied under James I. at the beginning of the seventeenth century it liad lasted, according to the most moderate calculations, since the time of King Cormac, in 2G6 — that is to say, fourteen centuries.

'^* "Hci antiquaria; professores ct poctas... quos tempore gcntilismi Druidas, Vates, et Bardos... vocabant.... His ex officio incumbebat,.. familiarum nobilium et praerogativas studiose observare; regionum agrorumque metas ac limites notare ac distinguere." — O'Donnell, book iii.

c. 2 and 7.

VOL. IT. 6 the glory, and often to write the annals, of the community .^^^ Notwithstanding, it is apparent, through many of the legends of the period, that the bards represented a pagan power, in the eyes of many ecclesiastical writers, and that they were willingly identified with those Druids or Magi who had been the principal enemies of the evangelical mission of Patrick in Ireland and of Columba in Scotland.^^'^ Even in the legend of Columba ^^^ it is noted that some among them had determined to make him pay for his ransom according to their custom, and had for this end addressed to him importunate solicitations, threatening, if he refused, to abuse him in their verse.

Notwithstanding, it was Columba who saved them. He who was born a poet and remained a poet to the last day of his life, interceded for them, and gained their cause. His success was not without difSculty, for King Aedh was eager in their pursuit; but Columba, as stubborn as bold, made head against all. He represented that care must g?a1n^muit bc taken not to pull up the good corn with the tares;

^^^^ ^^® general exile of the poets would be the death of a venerable antiquity and of that poetry which Avas so dear to the country and so useful to those who knew how to employ it.^^^ The ripe corn must not be burned, he said, because of the weeds that mingle The king and the assembly yielded at length, under condition that the number of bards should be henceforward limited, and that their profession should be put under certain rules determined by Columba himself. It was his eloquence alone which turned aside the blow by which they were threatened; and knowing themselves to be saved by him, they showed their gratitude by exalting his glory in their songs and by leaving to their successors the charge of continuing his praise.^^'^

"* Hersart de la Villemarque, La Poesie des Cloitres Celtiqucs, Coro-espondant du 25 Novembre, 18G3.

¹⁵⁰ upoetce impudentes," says the legend of St. Colman, Boll. Act. SS. Junii, vol. ii. p. 27.

'^' " Cum aliquot vernaculae seu Hibernicffi poeseos professores, quosbardos vocant, eum nihil turn ad manuni habentein, non importune tantura, sed improbe divexassent, nescio quod donativum ab eo sub interminatione invectivi poematis contendentes." — O'Donnell, book i. c. 57.

152 u jjg inter Antiquariorum vitia extirpanda, simul et interiret venerandse antiquitatis studium.... Artem regno et recte usuris valde proficuam." — O'Donnell.

'^^ All the authorities of Irish history, printed or in manuscript, confirm this tradition (see Keeves, p. 79, and Moore, p. 257). Adamnan alone

Columba himself had a profound pleasure in this poetical popularity. The corporation of bards had a chief, Dalian Fcrgall, who was blind, and whose violent death (he was murdered by pirates) has given him a place among the holy martyrs, of whom there are so few in Ireland. Immediately after the favorable decision of the assembly, s:raiitude Dalian composed a song in honor of Columba, and came to sing it before him. At the flattering sounds of this song of gratitude the Abbot of lona could not defend himself from a human sentiment of self-satisfaction. But he was immediately reproved by one of his monks, Baithen, one of his twelve original companions in exile, and who was destined to be his successor. This faithful friend was not afraid to accuse Columba of pride, nor to tell him that he saw a sombre cloud of demons fl3nng and playing round his head. Columba profited by the warning. He imposed silence upon Dallan,^^ reminding him that it was only the dead who should be praised, and absolutely forbade him to repeat his song.^'^'^ Dalian obeyed reluctantly, and awaited the death of the saint to make known his poem, which became celebrated in Irish literature under the name of Ambh^a, or the Praise of St. Coluinbcille. It was still sung a century after his death throughout all Ireland and Scotland, fioSHlvoand even the least devout of men repeated it with ^'^"^^ this tenderness and fervor, as a safeguard against the song was dangers of war and every other accident.^^ It even ^^°^^ says nothing of it; but he speaks of numGrous songs in the Scotic language in honor of Columba. which circulated everywhere in Scotland and in Ireland.

'*^ " Composuit patrio sermone rhythmum ilium... qui in scholis Antiquariorum publice perlegi et scholiis ac commentariis exponi consuevit." —O'DoNXELL, book i. c. 6. This poem, which has been the subject of innumerable commentaries, still exists in MS., and is to be published with all the Liber Ilymnorum by Dr. Todd. Colgan possessed a copy which seemed to him almost unintelligible: " Est penes me exemplar hujus operis ogregie scriptum, sed seclusis fusis, quos habet annexes, commentariis, hodie paucis, iisquc peritissimis, penetrablle." — Ubi supra.

*"" Vita Sancti Dallani Martyris, ap. Colgan, Acta Sanctorum Hibernice, p. 20L

'^* " Ejusdem beati viri per quaedam Scoticaj linguse laudum ipsius carmina, et nominis commemorationera, quidam, quamlibet sceleratis laica; conversationis homines et sanguinarii, ca nocte qua eadem decantaverant cantica, dc manibus inimicorum qui eanidem eorumdem cantorum donmm circunistetcrant, sunt liberati.... Pauci ex ipsis, qui easdem sancti viri commemorationes, quasi parvi pcndentes, canere noluerant decantationes... soli disperierunt. Hujus miraculi testes... centeni et amplius. Hoc idem ut contigisse probatur non in uno loco aut tempore, sed diversis locis ct temporibus in Scotia et Britannia, simili tamen modo et causa liberationis factum fuisse. Haec ab expertis uniuscujusque regionis, ubicumque res came to be believed that every one who knew this Ambhra by heart and sang it piously would die a good death. But when the unenlightened people came so far as to believe that even great sinners, without either conversion or penitence, had only to sing the Ambhra of Columbcille every day in order to be saved, a wonder happened, says the historian and grandnephew of the saint, which opened the eyes of the faithful, by showing to them how they ought to understand the privileges accorded by God to his saints. An ecclesiastic of the metropolitan church of Armagh, who was a man of corrupt life, and desired to be saved without making any change in his conduct, succedeed in learning the half of the famous Ambhra, but never could remember the other half. It was in vain that he made a pilgrimage to the tomb of the saint, fasted, prayed, and spent the entire night in efforts to impress it upon his memory — the next morning he found that, though he had at length succeeded in learning the latter half, he had completely forgotten the first.^^''

The gratitude of the bards to him who had preserved them from exile and outlawry, has certainly had some share in the wonderful and lasting popularity of Columba's name. Shrined in the national and religious poetry of the two islands, his fame has not only lasted in full brilliancy in Ireland, but it has survived even the Reformation — which has destroyed almost all other traces of their past history as Christians —in the memory of the Celts of Scotland.

^^ ^^^® other hand, the protection of Columba certainly confirmed the popularity of the bards in the heart of the Irish nation. All opposition between the religious spirit and the bardic influence disappeared from his time. Music and poetry after that period identified themselves more and more with ecclesiastical life. Among the relics of the saints the harps on which they had played found a place. At the first English conquest, the bishops and a/bbots excited the surprise of the invaders by their love of music, and by accompanying themselves on the harp.i*^^ Irish poetry, which was in the days eadem simili contigit miraculo, indubitanter didicimus." Adamnan, i. 1. Let us add that the disciples of Columba continued to cultivate music and poetry after his death. A modern poet, James Hogg, has written some English verses, in themselves insignificant, to an old air which had been sung by the monks of lona. — Whitelaw, The Book of Scottish Song. Glasgow, 1857.

'^^ VicoMTE DE la Villemabque, Pocste des Cloiires Celtiques, after CoLGAN and O'Donnell, ubi supra.

158 (« jjijjg accidit ut episcopi et abbates et sancti in Hibernia viri citharas of Patrick and Columba so powerful and so popular, has long undergone in the country of Ossian the same fate as the religion of which these great saints were the apostles. Rooted like it in the heart of a conquered people, and like it proscribed and persecuted with unwearing vehemence, it has come ever forth anew from the bloody furrow in which it was supposed to be buried. The bards became the most powerful allies of patriotism, the most dauntless prophets of national independence, and also the favorite victims of the cruelty of spoilers and conquerors. They made music and poetry weapons and bulwarks against foreign oppression, and the oppressors used them as they had used the priests and the nobles. A price was set upon their heads. But while the last scions of the royal and noble races, decimated or ruined in Ireland, departed, to die out under a foreign sky amid the miseries of exile, the successor of the bards, the minstrel, whom nothing could tear from his native soil, was pursued, tracked, and taken like a wild beast, or chained and slaughtered like the most dangerous of rebels.

In the annals of the atrocious legislation directed by the English against the Irish people, as well be- lH^l^ into fore ^'^^ as after the Reformation, special penalties against the minstrels, bards, rhymers, and genealo- chief chamgists, who sustained the lords and gentlemen in their love of rebellion and of other crimes,^^*^ are to be

'

met at every step. An attempt was made, under the sanguinary Elizabeth, to give pecuniary recompense to those who would celebrate "her Majesty's most worthy praise." The bargain was accepted by none. All preferred flight or death to this salary of lies. Wandering over hill and dale, hidden in the depths of the devastated country, they perpetuated there the poetic traditions of their condemned race, and sang the glory of ancient heroes and new martyrs, the shame of apostates, and the crimes of the sacrilegious stranger.

In order the better to brave tyranny in the midst of a subdued and silent people, they had recourse to allegory and the elegies of love. Under the figure of an enslaved queen — or

oircuniferrc et in iis modulando pie delcctari consueverint.... Sancti Kevini cithara ab indigenis in revcrentia non modica et pro reliquiis virtuosis et magriis usque liodie liabetur." — Giualdus, Cambrics Descriptio, c. 12.

¹⁵⁹ pyj. instance, at the parliament of Kilkenny under Edward I. '*° These are the words of an act of the time of Elizabeth, quoted by Moore, p. 2u7. of a woman loved with an everlasting love and fought for with despairing faithfulness, in face of the jealous fury of a step-mother — they celebrated again and again the Irish Fatherland, the country in mourning and tears, once queen and now a slave.i^i The Irish, says a great historian of our own day, loved to make of their country a real being whom they loved, and who loved them. They loved to address her without naming her name, and to identify the austere and perilous devotion which they had vowed to her with all that is sweetest and most fortunate in the affections of the heart, like those Spartans who crowned themselves with flowers when about to perish at Thermopylge.i^^

^P ^^ ^^® *^"^® ^^ ^^^® Ungrateful Stuarts, this proscription of the national poets was permanent, ™'^°'"'" increasing in force with every change of reign and every new parliament. The rage of the Cromwellian Protestants carried them so far as to break, wherever they met with them, the minstrel's harps ^^^ which were still to be found in the miserable cottages of the starving Irish, as they were eleven centuries before, at the time when the courageous and charitable Bridget saw them suspended on the wall of the king's palace.^^* Nevertheless the harp has remained the emblem of Ireland even in the official arms of the British empire; and during all last century the travelling harper, last and pitiful successor of the bards protected by Columba, was always to be found at the side of the priest to celebrate The never- ^^^® ^^^J mystories of the proscribed worship. He never ceased to be received with tender respect Under the thatchod roof of the poor Irish peasant, whom he consoled in his misery and oppression by the plaintive tenderness and solemn sweetness of the music of his fathers.

The continuance of these distinctive features of Irish char-

161 (( j5j.;jj Qjf ^]^Q sorrows, once a queen, now a slave."

*®^ AuGUSTiN Thierry, Dix Ans d'Etudes Historiques.

163 <4Efferati quidem excursores in obvias quasque lyras earnm proscissione multis in locis immaniter sa3viant." Lynch, Camhrensis Eversus, book i. c. 4, p. 316. This author, who wrote in 1662, feels himself obliged to give a detailed description of the harp, lest the instrument should disappear in the general ruin of Ireland. " Quare operae me pretium facturum existinio, si lyrae formam lectori ob oculos ponam, ne illius memoris gentis excidio... innexa obliteretur." Charles II., as soon as he was established on the throne, permitted the passing of an act of Parliament " against the vagabond minstrels, to repress their rhymes and scandalous songs."

164 (I 2t vidit citliaras in domo regis, ct dixit: Citharizate nobis citharis vestris." — Tertia Vita Sanctcs BrigitcB, c. Ih, p. 536, ap. Colgan.

THE APOSTLE OF CALEDONIA. 67

acter through so many centuries is so striking, and the misfortunes of that noble race touch us so nearly, that it is difficult to resist the temptation of leaving behind us those distant ages, and of following through later generations the melancholy relics of all that has been discovered or admired in the most ancient days. We may be pardoned for adding that, if the text of those poetic and generously obstinate protests against the enslavement of Ireland have perished, the life and spirit of them has survived in the pure and penetrating beauty of the ancient Irish airs. Their harmonies and their refrains, which are inimitably natural, original, and pathetic, move the depths of the soul, and send a thrill through all the fibres of human sensibility. Thomas Moore, in adapting to them words which are marked with the impression of a passionate fidelity to the proscribed faith and oppressed country, has given to the Irish 3£elodies a popularity which v/as not the least powerful among those pleas which determined the great contest of Catholic Emancipation.

The genius of Celtic poetry has, however, survived not only in Ireland, in the country of Columba muse at the and of Moore, but has found a refuge in the glens of the Scottish Highlands, among those vast moors and rugged mountains, and beside the deep and narrow lakes, which Columba, bearing the light of the faith to the Caledonian Picts, had so often traversed. In those districts where, as in a great part of Ireland, the Erse or Gaelic language is still spoken, the Celtic muse, always sad and always attached to the cause of the people, has been found in recent times, at the most prosaic moment of modern civilization, in the eighteenth century itself, inspiring the warlike songs and laments which the Highlanders have consecrated to the conquered Pretender and his followers slain. And if we may believe a competent and impartial judge,^^^ the last effusions of the soul of the Gaelic race surpass, in plaintive beauty and in passionate feeling, even those delicious Anglo-Scottish songs which no traveller can hear without emotion, and which have assured the palm, at least of poetry, to the cause of the Stuarts, which has been so sadly represented by its princes, and so ill served by events, but which the popular and national muse has thus avenged, even for the irremediable defeat of Culloden.

'" Charles JIackay, The Jacobite Songs and Ballads of Scotland from 1G88 to 174G, Introduction, p. 18.