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and of all other good learning was preserved in that inundation of barbarism, wherewith the whole west was in a manner overwhelmed. "Hitherto (saith Eurio) it might seem that the studies of wisdom should quite have perished, unless God had reserved a seed in some corner of the world. Among the Scotish and the Irish something as yet remained of the doctrine of the knowledge of God and of civil honesty; because there was no terror of arms in those utmost ends of the world. And we may there behold and adore the great goodness of God, that among the Scots, and in those places where no man would have thought it, so many great companies should be gathered together under a most strict discipline."

How strict their discipline was, may appear partly by the rule, and partly by the daily penances of monks, which are yet extant of Columbanus his writing. In the latter of these, for the disobedience of monks these penances are prescribed. "If any brother be disobedient, he shall fast two days, with one biscuit and water. If any say, I will not do it: three days, with one biscuit and water. If any murmur, two days, with one biscuit and water. If any do not ask leave, or tell an excuse, two days, with one biscuit aud water;" and so in other particulars. In his rule, these good lessons doth he give unto his monks, among many others: that "it' profited them little, if they were virgins in body, and were not virgins in

d Hactenus videri poterat actum esse cum sapientiæ studiis; nisi semen Deus servasset in aliquo mundi angulo. In Scotis et Hibernis hæserat aliquid adhuc de doctrina cognitionis Dei et honestatis civilis; quod nullus fuerit in ultimis illis mundi finibus armorum terror, &c. Et summam possumus ibi conspicere et adorare Dei bonitatem; quod in Scotis, et locis, ubi nemo putasset, tam numerosi coaluerint sub strictissima disciplina cœtus. Jacob. Curio, lib. 2. rerum Chronologic.

e Si quis frater inobediens fuerit; duos dies uno paxmate et aqua. Si quis dicit, Non faciam; tres dies uno paxmate et aqua. Si quis murmurat; duos dies uno paxmate et aqua. Si quis veniam non petit, aut dicit excusationem ; duos dies uno paxmate et aqua. Columban. lib. de quotidianis pœnitentiis monachor. cap. 10. MS. in monasterio. S. Galli.

f Quid prodest, si virgo corpore sit, et non sit virgo mente? Id. in Regula monachor. cap. 8.

mind;" that they "should" daily profit, as they did daily pray, and daily read ;" that "theh good things of the Pharisee being vainly praised were lost, and the sins of the Publican being accused vanished away: and therefore that a great word should not come out of the mouth of a monk, lest his great labour should perish." They were not taught to vaunt of their state of perfection, and works of supererogation or to argue from thence, as Celestius the Pelagian monk sometimes did, that "by the nature of their free will they had such a possibility of not sinning, that they were able also to do more than was commanded; because they did observe perpetual virginity, which is not commanded, whereas for not sinning it is sufficient to fulfil the precepts." It was one of the points which Gallus, the scholar of Columbanus, delivered in his sermon preached at Constance; that our Saviour "did so persuade the apostles and their followers to lay hold upon the good of virginity, that yet they should know it was not of human industry, but of divine gift;" and it is a good observation which we read in Claudius, that "not only in the splendour of bodily things, but also in mournful abasing of one's self, there may be boasting: and that so much the more dangerous, as it deceiveth under the name of the service of God."

Our monks were religious in deed, and not in name only; far from the hypocrisy, pride, idleness and unclean

8 Quotidie proficiendum est: sicut quotidie orandum, quotidieque est legendum. Ibid. cap. 5.

Bona vane laudata Pharisei perierunt: et peccata Publicani accusata evanuerunt. Non exeat igitur verbum grande de ore monachi: ne suus grandis pereat labor. Ibid. cap. 7.

Tantam nos habere per naturam liberi arbitrii non peccandi possibilitatem : ut plus etiam quam præceptum est, faciamus: quoniam perpetua servatur a plerisque virginitas, quæ præcepta non est; cum ad non peccandum præcepta implere sufficiat. Aug. de gestis Pelag. cap. 13. op. tom. 10. pag. 207.

* Ipsis apostolis et eorum sequacibus ita bonum virginitatis arripiendum persuasit: ut hoc scirent non humanæ industriæ, sed muneris esse divini. S. Gallus, in serm. habit. Constant.

I Non in solo rerum corporearum nitore, sed etiam in ipsis sordibus luctuosis esse posse jactantiam: et eo periculosiorem, quo sub nomine servitutis Dei decipit. Claud. lib. 1. in Matth.

ness of those evil beasts and slothful bellies that afterward succeeded in their room. Under colour of forsaking all, they did not hook all unto themselves; nor under semblance of devotion did they devour widows' houses: they held begging to be no point of perfection, but remembered the words of our Lord Jesus, how he said, "It is a more blessed thing to give rather than to take.” When king Sigebert made large offers unto Columbanus and his companions, to keep them within his dominions in France, he received such another answer from them, as Thaddeus" in the ecclesiastical history is said to have given unto Abgarus the governor of Edessa: "We who have forsaken our own, that according to the commandment of the Gospel we might follow the Lord, ought not to embrace other men's riches, lest peradventure we should prove transgressors of the divine commandment." How then did these men live, will you say? Walafridus Strabus telleth us, that "some of them wrought in the garden, others dressed the orchard;" Gallus made nets and took fish, wherewith he not only relieved his own company, but was helpful also unto strangers. So Bede reporteth of Cuthbert, that when he retired himself unto an anchoretical life, he "first indeed received a little bread from his brethren to feed upon, and drank out of his own well; but afterwards he thought it more fit to live by the work of his own hands, after the example of the fathers and therefore entreated, that instruments might

:

m Act. cap. 20. ver. 35.

* Εἰ τὰ ἡμέτερα καταλελοίπαμεν, πῶς τὰ ἀλλότρια ληψόμεθα ; Euseb. lib. 1. hist. cap. ult.

• Qui nostra reliquimus, ut secundum evangelicam jussionem Dominum sequeremur, non debemus alienas amplecti divitias; ne forte prævaricatores simus divini mandati. Walafrid. Strab. vit. Galli, lib. 1. cap. 2.

P Alii hortum laboraverunt, alii arbores pomiferas excoluerunt. B. vero Gallus texebat retia, &c. et de eodem labore assiduas populo benedictiones exhibuit. Ibid. cap. 6.

4 Et primum quidem permodicum ab eis panem, quo vesceretur accipiebat, ac suo bibebat e fonte: postmodum vero proprio manuum labore juxta exempla patrum vivere magis aptum ducebat. Rogavit ergo afferri sibi instrumenta quibus terram exerceret, et triticum quod sereret. Bed. vit. Cuthbert. pros. cap. 19. Vid. lib. 4. hist. eccles. cap. 28.

be brought him wherewith he might till the earth, and corn that he might sow.

Quiquer suis cupiens victum conquirere palmis ;

Incultam pertentat humum proscindere ferro,

Et sator edomitis anni spem credere glebis.

The like doth he relate of Furseuss, and Bonifacius of Livinust, and Theodorus Campidonensis (or whosoever else wrote that book) of Gallus", Magnoaldus, and the rest of the followers of Columbanus, that they got their living by the labour of their own hands. And the apostle's" rule is generally laid down for all monks, in the life of Furseus: "They which live in monasteries should work with silence, and eat their own bread."

But now there is started up a new generation of men, that refuse to eat their own bread, and count it a high point of sanctity to live by begging of other men's bread; if yet the course they take may rightly be termed begging. For as Richard Fitz-Ralph, that famous archbishop of Armagh, objected to their faces, before the pope himself and his cardinals in his time (and the matter is little amended, I wis, in ours), scarce could any great or mean man of the clergy or the laity eat his meat, but such kind of beggars would be at his elbow: not like other poor folks

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Id. in Carm. de vit. Cuthbert. cap. 17.

* Id. lib. 3. hist. eccles. cap. 19.

1 Bonifac. in vita Livini, pag. 240.

"Theod. Campid. vit. Magni, lib. 1. cap. 5. edit. Goldasti, 6. Canisii.

w 2 Thess. cap. 3. ver. 12.

* Qui in monasteriis degunt, cum silentio operantes, suum panem manducent. Vit. Fursei.

y Jam enim istis in temporibus non poterit magnus aut mediocris in clero et populo aut vix cibum sumere, ubi tales non affuerint mendicantes: non more pauperum petentes ad portas vel ostia humiliter eleemosynam (ut Franciscus in testamento præcepit et docuit) mendicando; sed curias, sive domos, sine verecundia penetrantes, et inibi hospitantes, nullatenus invitati, edunt et bibunt quæ apud eos reperiunt : secum nihilominus aut grana, aut similam, aut panes, aut carnes, seu caseos (etiamsi in domo non fuerint nisi duo) secum extorquendo reportant: nec eis quisquam poterit denegare, nisi verecundiam naturalem abjiciat. Rich. Armachanus, in defensorio Curatorum, pag. 56, 57. edit. Paris. ann. 1625. (collat. cum vetere editione Ascensiana.)

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humbly craving alms at the gate or the door (as Francis did command and teach them in his testament) by begging; but without shame intruding themselves into courts or houses, and lodging there; where, without any inviting at all, they eat and drink what they do find among them: and not with that content, carry away with them either wheat, or meal, or bread, or flesh, or cheeses (although there were but two in an house) in a kind of an extorting manner; there being none that can deny them, unless he would cast away natural shame."

This did that renowned primate (whose anniversary memory is still celebrated in Dundalk, where he was born and buried, by the name of St. Richard) publickly deliver in the year MCCCLVII. at the Consistory of Avignon, where he stoutly maintained against the whole rabble of the friars, what he had preached the year before at Paul's Cross unto the people; namely, "that our Lord Jesus Christ, although in his human conversation he was always poor," "yet" did he never voluntarily beg himself," "norb taught others so to do," "but taught the plain contrary:" and "that no man could prudently and holily take upon himself the perpetual observation of voluntary beggary; forasmuch as such kind of begging, as well by Christ, as by his apostles and disciples, by the Church and by the holy Scriptures, was both dissuaded and also reproved.”

His countryman, Henry Crumpe, a monk of the Cister

2 Prima conclusio erat, quod Dominus Jesus Christus in conversatione sua humana semper pauper erat, non quia propter se paupertatem dilexit aut voluit. Ibid. pag. 104, 105.

a Secunda conclusio erat, quod Dominus noster Jesus Christus nunquam spontanee mendicavit. Ib. pag. 107.

b Tertia conclusio fuit; quod Christus nunquam docuit spontanee mendicare. Ib. pag. 121.

c Quarta conclusio fuit; quod Dominus noster Jesus Christus docuit non debere homines spontanee mendicare. Ibid. pag. 123.

d Quinta conclusio erat; quod nullus potest prudenter et sancte spontaneam mendicitatem super se assumere perpetuo asservandam; quoniam ex quo talis mendicitas vel mendicatio est dissuasa a Christo, a suis apostolis et discipulis, et ab Ecclesia ac sacris Scripturis, ac etiam reprobata: consequitur quod non potest prudenter et sancte assumi hoc modo. Ibid. pag. 131. Vid. ejusd. Richardi sermonem 3. apud Crucem Londin. edit. Paris. ann. 1512,

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