it is supposed, by John of Constantinople, with a view of bringing the pope into trouble"-asked him to send her the head, or some part of the body, of St. Paul, for a new church which was built in honour of the Apostle. Gregory answered, that it was not the custom at Rome to handle or to dispose of the bodies of martyrs; that many persons who had presumed to touch the remains of St. Peter and St. Paul had been struck with death in consequence; that he could only send her a cloth which had been applied to the Apostle's body, but that such cloths possessed the same miraculous power as the relics themselves. He added, that the practice of removing relics gave occasion to fraud, and mentioned the case of some Greek monks who, when called in question for digging up dead bodies by night at Rome, confessed an intention of passing them off in Greece as relics of martyrs."

Two of Gregory's letters are addressed to Serenus, bishop of Marseilles, who, on finding that some images were the subjects of adoration, had broken them; and these letters have a special interest from their bearing on the controversy as to images which arose somewhat more than a century after. The pope commends Serenus for his zeal, but blames him for the manner in which it had been displayed. He tells him that modesty ought to have restrained him from an action for which no bishop had given any precedent; that pictures and images serve for the instruction of those who cannot read books; and that for this purpose they ought to be preserved in churches, while care should be taken to guard against the worship of them.”

For some

Gregory's infirmities had long been growing on him. years he had been seldom able to leave his bed; he professed that the expectation of death was his only consolation, and requested his friends to pray for his deliverance from his sufferings. On the 12th of March, 604, he was released."

While the conversion of the English was reserved for the zeal of Italian monks, a remarkable body of missionaries set out from the shores of Ireland. Their leader, Columban,' born in the province of Leinster about 560, was trained in the great Irish monastery of Bangor, which contained a society of three thousand monks, under

Lau, 299.

marth. II. xi. 7.

Ep. iv. 30.

Vita S. Columb. by Jonas, a mouk P Epp. ix. 105; xi. 13. See Basnage, of Bobbio, in Mabillon, ii., or Patrol.

1336.

lxxxvii.

* Ep. xi. 44.

y

the government of its founder, Comgal." Columban resolved to detach himself from earthly things by leaving his country, after the example of Abraham, and in 589* crossed the sea with twelve companions, first into Britain, and thence into Gaul. He had intended to preach the Gospel to the heathen nations beyond the Frankish dominions; but the decayed state of religion and discipline offered him abundant employment in Gaul, and, at the invitation of Guntram king of Burgundy, he settled in that country. Declining the king's offers of a better position, he established himself in the Vosges, where a district which in the Roman times was cultivated and populous had again become a wilderness, while abundant remains of Roman architecture and monuments of the old idolatry were left as evidence of its former prosperity. Here he successively founded three monasteries, Anegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines. For a time the missionaries had to endure great hardships; they had often for days no other food than wild herbs and the bark of trees, until their needs were supplied by means which are described as miraculous. But by degrees the spectacle of their severe and devoted life made an impression on the people of the neighbourhood. They were looked on with reverence by men of every class; and while their religious instructions were gladly heard, their labours in clearing and tilling the land encouraged the inhabitants to exertions of the same kind. The monasteries were speedily filled with persons attracted by the contrast which Columban's system presented to the general relaxation of piety and morals among the native monks and clergy; and children of noble birth were placed in them for education."

The Rule of Columban was probably derived in great measure from the Irish Bangor. The main principle of it was the inculcation of absolute obedience to superiors, the entire mortification of the individual wille-a principle which is dangerous, as relieving the mind from the feeling of responsibility, and as tending either to deaden the spirit, or to deceive it into pride veiled under the appearance of humility. The diet of the monks was to be coarse, and was to be proportioned to their labour. But Columban

f

warned against excessive abstinence, as being "not a virtue but a vice." "Every day," it was said, "there must be fasting, as every day there must be refreshment;" and every day the monks were also to pray, to work, and to read. There were to be three services by day and three by night, at hours variable according to the season." The monastic plainness was extended even to the sacred vessels, which were not to be of any material more costly than brass.h To the Rule was attached a Penitential, which, instead of leaving to the abbot the same discretion in the appointment of punishments which was allowed by the Benedictine system, lays down the details with curious minuteness. Corporal chastisement is the most frequent penalty. Thus, six strokes were to be given to every one who should call anything his own; to every one who should omit to say "Amen after the abbot's blessing, or to make the sign of the cross on his spoon or his candle; to every one who should talk at meals, or who should fail to repress a cough at the beginning of a psalm. Ten strokes were the punishment for striking the table with a knife, or for spilling beer on it. For heavier offences the number rose as high as two hundred ; but in no case were more than twenty-five to be inflicted at once. Among the other penances were fasting on bread and water, psalm-singing, humble postures, and long periods of silence. Penitents were not allowed to wash their hands except on Sunday. They were obliged to kneel at prayers even on the Lord's Day and in the Pentecostal season. Columban warned his monks against relying on externals; but it may fairly be questioned whether his warnings can have been powerful enough to counteract the natural tendency of a system so circumstantial and so rigid in the enforcement of formal observances. k

m

Columban fell into disputes with his neighbours as to the time of keeping Easter, in which he followed the custom of his native country. He wrote on the subject to Gregory and to Boniface (either the third or the fourth pope of that name), requesting that they would not consider his practice as a ground for breach of communion." In his letters to popes, while he speaks with high respect of the Roman see, the British spirit of independence strongly appears. He exhorts Gregory to reconsider the question of the paschal cycle without deferring to the opinions of Leo or of

other elder popes; "perhaps," he says, "in this case, a living dog may be better than a dead lion." He even sets the church of Jerusalem above that of Rome: "You," he tells Boniface IV, "are almost heavenly, and Rome is the head of the Churches of the world, saving the special prerogative of the place of the Lord's resurrection;" and he goes on to say that, in proportion as the dignity of the Roman bishops is great, so ought their care to be great, lest by perversity they lose it. Another letter on the subject of Easter is addressed to a Gaulish synod. He entreats the bishops to let him follow the usage to which he has been accustomed, and to allow him to live peaceably, as he had already lived for twelve years, amid the solitude of the forest, and beside the bones of his seventeen deceased brethren.a

A.D. 610.

After a residence of about twenty years in Burgundy, Columban incurred the displeasure of king Theodoric II., by whom he had before been held in great honour. Brunichild, the grandmother of Theodoric, according to a policy not uncommon among the queen-mothers of India in our own day, endeavoured to prolong her influence in the kingdom by encouraging the young prince in a life of indolence and sensuality. Columban repeatedly, both by word and by letter, remonstrated against Theodoric's courses: he refused to bless his illegitimate children, and, with much vehemence of behaviour, rejected the hospitality of the court, making (it is said) the dishes and drinking-vessels which were set before him fly into pieces by his word. The king, whom Brunichild diligently instigated against him, told him that he was not unwise enough to make him a martyr, but ordered him to be conducted to Nantes with his Irish monks, in order that they might be sent back to their own country. The journey of the missionaries across France was rendered a series of triumphs by the miracles of Columban, and by the popular enthusiasm in his favour." On their arrival at Nantes, the vessel which was intended to convey them to Ireland was prevented, by miraculous causes, from performing its task; and Columban, being then allowed to choose his own course, made his way to Metz, where Theodebert II. of Austrasia gave him leave to preach throughout his dominions."

He then ascended the Rhine into Switzerland, and laboured for a time in the neighbourhood of the lake of Zurich. At Tuggen, it is said, he found a number of the inhabitants assembled around a large vat of beer, and was told that it was intended as a sacrifice to Woden. By breathing on it, he made the vessel burst with a loud noise, so that, as his biographer tells us, "it was manifest that the devil had been hid in it." His preaching and miracles made many converts, but after a time he was driven, by the hostility of the idolatrous multitude, to remove into the neighbourhood of Bregenz, on the lake of Constance, where he found circumstances favourable to the success of his work. The country had formerly been Christian; many of its inhabitants had been baptized, although they had afterwards conformed to the idolatry of the Alamanni, who had overrun it; and the Alamannic law, made under Frankish influence, already provided for Christian clergy the same privileges which they enjoyed in France. Columban was kindly received by a presbyter named Willimar: he destroyed the idols of the people, threw them into the lake, and for a time preached with great success. But in 612, Theodebert was defeated by Theodoric, and Columban found it necessary to leave the territory which had thus fallen into the possession of his enemy. He meditated a mission to the Slavons, but was diverted from the design by an angel, and crossed the Alps into Italy, where he was received with honour by Agilulf and Theodelinda, and founded a monastery at Bobbio. At the request of his Lombard patrons, he wrote to Boniface IV. on the controversy of the "Three Articles." His knowledge of the question was very small: he had been possessed with opinions contrary to those of the Roman bishops respecting it; and perhaps this difference of views, together with the noted impetuosity of his character, might have led to serious disagreements, but that the danger was prevented by his death in

b

е

micrologus eloquentissimo, extremus primo, peregrinus indigenæ, pauperculus præpotenti (mirum dictu! nova res! rara avis!) scribere audet Bonifacio patri Palumbus."

f Dr. Reeves makes the general remark that "If we may judge from the biographical records which have descended to us, primitive Irish ecclesiastics, and especially the superior class, commonly known as saints, were very impatient of contradiction, and very resentful of injury." Prolegom. to Adamnan, lxxvii.