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FROM ENGLISH CHRONICLERS 9
And out of each of these monasteries thenceforth very many
monasteries were multiplied by his disciples, both in Britain
and in Ireland so that over all of them the same island mon-
;
astery in which he rests in the body held the principate. x
Now that island is accustomed to have as its ruler ever an
abbot-priest, to whose right both the whole province and the
bishops also themselves must be subject, in uncustomary order,
after the example of its first teacher, who was no bishop, but a
and monk. 2
priest
And of his life and words some writings are reported to be
in the possession of his disciples. But whatever manner of
man he was himself, 3 this we hold for certain concerning him,
1 Cf. Bede, H.E., III, 3, infra, after 635 A.D. ; III, 21, infra, s.a. 655,
note ; V, 22, infra, s.a. 716. In each of these passages Bede uses a past
tense of the verb in speaking of the authority of lona. The control of the
Columbite monasteries in Britain was removed to Dunkeld by Constantin I,
who reigned from 789 to 820 A.D. Later, the monastery of lona was abandoned
owing to the Norwegian invasions ; but it was rebuilt by queen Margaret.
Cf. O.V., VIII, xx, infra, s.a. 1093. Kenneth mac Alpin (who reigned 844-860)
"
in the seventh year of his reign transferred the body of St. Columba to the
church which he had founded," at Dunkeld. Chr. of the Picts, in Skene,
P. & S., 8. The monastery of Abingdon claimed to possess one of Columba's
ribs ; Chr. of Ab., ii, 158. For his relics' wanderings v. Ann. of Ulst., s.aa.
828, 830, 848, 877.
2 This is misunderstood by A.S.C., MSS. A,E,F, s.a. 565 :
there must ever be in lona an abbot, not a bishop ;
" Now
and to him must be subject
all Scottish bishops ;
Cf. Bede, H.E.,
because Columba was an abbot, not a bishop."
IV, 27; i, 270: "For at that time the same most
reverend father [Eata] ruled this place also [Lindisfarne], in the rank of
abbot. For indeed from ancient times both the bishop was wont to dwell
there with the clergy, and the abbot with the monks ; although they too
pertained as a family to the care of the bishop. Because of course Aidan,
who was the first bishop of that place, himself a monk came with monks
thither, and established there monastic life : even as we know the blessed
father Augustine also to have done before in Kent, when the most reverend
pope Gregory wrote to him what we have set down above also, [H.E., I, 27 ;
i, 48-49,] saying :
'
But because thou, my brother, hast been trained in the
rules of the monastery, and oughtest not to be separated from thy clergy :
in the church of the English, which lately by God's guidance has been brought
to the faith, that manner of life ought to be established which was to our
fathers the beginning of the church at its birth ; for among them was none
who said that anything of what they possessed was his own, but they had all
"
things in common.' Cf. Bede, V.S.C., XVI ; E.H.S. ed., ii, 79-80. S. of
D., H.D.E., i, 26.
Nevertheless Eata became abbot of Lindisfarne in 661 (Bede, H.E.,
III, 26, infra,) but was not bishop till 678 (H.E., IV, 12 ; i, 228-229.) In
the Scottish system the bishops were members of monasteries, and subject
to their abbot.
3 A still plainer insinuation against the character of Columba occurs
among Wilfrid's arguments at the Synod of Whitby ; Bede, H.E., III, 24 ;
"
i, 187-188 : Now of your father Columba and his followers, whose sanctity
you profess to imitate, and whose rule and precepts, confirmed by signs from
heaven, you profess to follow, I might be able to answer that when in the
Judgment many say to the Lord that they have prophesied in His name, and