archbishop of Mentz, and the council' held at Rome by pope Zachary in the year DCCXLV. condemned as a bringer in of Judaism amongst Christians. Yet how far this condemned opinion of his prevailed afterward in this country, and how foul a crime it was esteemed to be by others abroad (notwithstanding the pope doth now by his bulls of dispensation take upon him to make a fair matter of it) may easily be perceived by this censure of Giraldus: Moreover, saith he, "which is very detestable, and most contrary not only to the faith, but also unto common honesty; brethren in many places throughout Ireland do, I say not marry, but mar rather and seduce the wives of their deceased brothers, while in this sort they filthily and incestuously have knowledge of them: cleaving herein not to the marrow but to the bark of the Old Testament, and desiring to imitate the ancient in vices more willingly than in virtues."

Thirdly, touching divorces, we read in Sedulius, that "it is not lawful, according to the precept of our Lord, that the wife should be put away, but for the cause of fornication;" and in the synod ascribed to St. Patrick, "It is not lawful for a man to put away his wife, but for the cause of fornication; as if he should say, for this cause, he may. Whence if he marry another, as it were after the death of the former, they forbid it not." Who they were, that did not forbid this second marriage, is not there expressed that St. Patrick himself was of another

y Inferens Christianis Judaismum, dum prædicat fratris defuncti accipere uxorem. Concil. Roman. II. sub Zachar. ibid. pag. 383. e.

2 Quinimo (quod valde detestabile est, et non tantum fidei, sed et cuilibet honestati valde contrarium) fratres pluribus per Hiberniam locis fratrum defunctorum uxores, non dico ducunt, sed traducunt, imo verius seducunt; dum turpiter eas, et tam incestuose cognoscunt: veteris in hoc testamenti non medulla sed cortici adhærentes, veteresque libentius in vitiis quam virtutibus imitari volentes. Girald. Cambr. Topograph. Hibern. distinct. 3. cap. 19.

a Non licet secundum præceptum Domini ut dimittatur conjux, nisi causa fornicationis. Sedul. in 1 Cor. cap. 7.

b Non licet viro dimittere uxorem nisi ob causam fornicationis; ac si dicat, ob hanc causam. Unde si ducat alteram, velut post mortem prioris, non vetant. Synod. Patric. cap. 26. Wilkins conc. tom. 1. pag. 6.

mind, would appear by this constitution following; which in another ancient canon book I found cited under his name: "If any man's wife have committed adultery with another man he shall not marry another wife, as long as the first wife shall be alive. If peradventure she be converted, and do penance, he shall receive her; and she shall serve him in the place of a maid-servant. Let her for a whole year do penance in bread and water, and that by measure: neither let them remain in the same bed together." Fourthly, concerning single life, I do not find in any of our records, that it was generally imposed upon the clergy, but the contrary rather. For in the synod held by St. Patrick, Auxilius, and Isserninus, there is a special order taken, that their wives shall not walk abroad with their heads uncovered. And St. Patrick himself confesseth (at leastwise the confession which goeth under his name saith so; and Probus, Jocelinus, and others that write his life, agree therewith) that he hade to his father Calphurnius a deacon, and to his grandfather Potitus a priest. For that was no new thing then among the Britons; whose bishops therefore Gildas doth reprehend (as for the same cause he did the chief of the laity) that they were not content to be the husbands of one, but of many wives, and that they corrupted their children by their evil example: whereas "the chastity of the fathers was to be esteemed imperfect, if the chastity of their sons were not added thereunto."

Nennius, the eldest historiographer of the Britons

Si alicujus uxor fornicata fuerit cum alio viro: non adducet aliam uxorem, quandiu viva fuerit uxor prima. Si forte conversa fuerit, et agat pœnitentiam, suscipiet eam; et serviet ei in vicem ancillæ et annum integrum in pane et aqua per mensuram pœniteat; nec in uno lecto permaneant. Ex libro canonum Cottoniano, titulorum 66. Wilkins conc. tom. 1. pag. 6.

d Quicunque clericus, ab ostiario usque ad sacerdotem, sine tunica visus fuerit, &c. et uxor ejus si non velato capite ambulaverit: pariter a laicis contemnentur, et ab Ecclesia separentur. Synod. Patric. Auxil. Issernin. Ibid. pag. 2.

e. Patrem habui Calpornium diaconum, filium quondam Potiti presbyteri. S. Patricii Confessio. MS.

Imperfecta est patrum castitas, si eidem non et filiorum accumuletur. Sed quid erit, ubi nec pater, nec filius mali genitoris exemplo pravatus, conspicitur castus? Gildas.

which we have after him (who in many copies also beareth his own name) wrote that book which we have extant of his, to "Samuel the child of Benlanus the priest, his master," counting it a grace, rather than any kind of disparagement unto him, to be esteemed the son of a learned priest. Which maketh him in the versesh prefixed before the work to say:

Christe, tribuisti patri Samuelem, læta matre.

But about sixty or seventy years after, I find some partial eclipse here (and the first, I think, of this kind, that can be shewed among the Britons) in the laws of Howel Dha, where it is ordered, that ifk a clerk of a lower degree should match with a woman, and have a son by her, and that clerk afterwards having received the order of priesthood, should have another son by the same woman, the former son should enjoy his father's whole estate, without being bound to divide the same with his other brother. Yet these marriages for all that were so held out, that the fathers not content their sons should succeed them in their temporal estate alone, prevailed so far that they continued them in the succession of their spiritual promotions also. Which abuse Giraldus Cambrensis complaineth' to have been continued in Wales

g Sic inveni, ut tibi Samuel (infans magistri mei Benlani presbyteri) in ista pagina scripsi. Nennius in manuscripto Dunelmensi.

h Versus Nennii ad Samuelem filium magistri sui Benlani, viri religiosi, ad quem historiam istam scripserat. Nenn. MS. in publica Cantabrigiensis academiæ bibliotheca.

Hinc apud Balæum, centur. 1. cap. 77. Benlani presbyteri conjux Læta est nominata.

Si clericus haberet fœminam datam a suo genere, et sic habet filium ex ea; et postea ille clericus presbyteratus ordinem accipiens, si post votum consecrationis filium haberet de eadem fœmina; prior filius non debet partiri cum filio post nato. Ex legib. Howel Dha, MS. in bibliotheca Cottoniana.

1 Successive et post patres filii ecclesias obtinent, non elective, sed hæreditate possidentes et polluentes sanctuarium Dei; quia si prælatus alium eligere et instituere forte præsumpserit; in instituentem procul dubio, vel institutum, genus injuriam vindicabit. Girald. Cambrensis Descript. Cambriæ, libro 2. MS. Successionis quippe vitium non solum in sedibus cathedralibus, verum etiam adeo per totam in clero sicut et in populo Walliam pertinaciter invaluit; quod et post

unto his time; and out of Hildebertusm Cenomanensis sheweth to have prevailed in little Britain also: whence he inferreth, that "this" vice was of old common to the whole British nation, as well on this side as on the other side of the sea." Whereunto for Ireland also we may add the letters written by pope Innocent the third unto Johannes Salernitanus the cardinal his legate, for abolishing the custom there, whereby sons and grand-children did use to succeed their fathers and grand-fathers in their ecclesiastical benefices.

patres filii passim ecclesias et consequenter obtineant, tanquam hæreditate possidentes et polluentes sanctuarium Dei, &c. Id. in Dialogo de Ecclesia Menevensi, distinct. 1. MS.

m Hildebert. epist. 65. ad Honorium II. tomo 12. biblioth. Patr. part. 1. pag. 338, 339. edit. Colon.

n Ex quibus constare potest, utrumque vitium toti huic genti Britanniæ tam cismarinæ quam transmarinæ ab antiquo commune fuisse. Girald. Cambr. in utroque.

• Alphons. Ciacon. in vitis pontificum et cardinalium, pag. 515.

CHAP. VI.

Of the discipline of our ancient monks; and abstinence from meats.

WHAT hath been said of the married clergy concerneth the seculars, and not the regulars, whereof there was a very great number in Ireland; because here "almost all the prelates were wont to be chosen into the clergy out of monasteries." For our monasteries in ancient time were the seminaries of the ministry: being, as it were, so many colleges of learned divines, whereunto the people did usually resort for instruction, and from whence the church was wont continually to be supplied with able ministers. The benefit whereof was not only contained within the limits of this island, but did extend itself to foreign countries likewise. For this was it that drew Egbert and Ceadda, for example, into Ireland, that they might there" lead a monastical life in prayers and continency and meditation of the holy Scriptures:" and hence were those famous monasteries planted in England by Aidan, Finan, Colman, and others; unto which "the people flocked apace on the Lord's day, not for the feeding of their body, but for the learning of the word of God," as Beda witnesseth. Yea this was the principal means, whereby the knowledge both of the Scriptures

a Fere omnes Hiberniæ prælati de monasteriis in clerum electi sunt. Girald. Cambren. Topograph. Hibern. distinct. 3. cap. 29.

Ecgbertus cum Ceadda adolescente et ipse adolescens in Hibernia monasticam in orationibus et continentia et meditatione divinarum Scripturarum vitam sedulus agebat. Bed. lib. 4. hist. cap. 3.

c Sed et diebus Dominicis ad ecclesiam sive ad monasteria certatim, non reficiendi corporis, sed erudiendi sermonis Dei gratia confluebant. Id. lib. 3. cap. 26.

Uor M