The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1878-03-27


furnishes, the close connection between the
ancient Irish Church and the Greek Church is
strikingly apparent, and the Byzantine his
torialis from the sixth century were aware Of
the fact The Irish Church celebrated Easter
according to the Greek not according to the
Roman ethods of determining the time for
tits obsersance, and there could be difference
Of nearly a month. The Irish clergy used the
Greek tonsure, with the hair RACED on the
front of the head from ear to ear, and not the
] Roman, with the hair RACED on the crown Of
the head. The Irish theologians quoted from
the Septuagint, not from the Vulgate. The
Irish people were taught to smite their breast
when praying, which is an Asiatic custom,
while the Roman priests taught their fiocks
to f6ldstlie hands,; Also the wailings at fun.
erals, and many other customs, still observa-
ble among the hdsh, are. Of Asiatic,s not of
Roman origin, and there came a time when
the work of St. Patrick and the spirit he had
sent forth proved one of the most formidable
obstacles to the establishment of Romanism.
The original Irish church, sthe Church of
St. Patrick, was missionary church, and, as
long as it lived, it never lost this character
Out among the heathens place was selected
and fenced in against wild beasts. In the GEN.
ire of the place the church was reared, low,
matched, at once school-room. lecture-hall,
and church. BY its side the belfry was raised,
high, strong, built of stone, at once fortress
and belfry- Scattered about IN the place stood
4 the huts in which lived the missionaries, with
| THAR wi nd cbslIran he lie
Such place was called monastery" The
inmates were called monks !" the leader,
!" Bishop When, instho course of time, the
whole vicinity was Christanized, and the mo-
mastery began to swarm with pupils who felt
theyshad found the truth, and were eager to
give Ii to others, ~ g monks and q sc Bish-
op" moved away, further out among the
heathens, across the seas into foreign coun-
tries. and founded new "monastery." In
this way Scotland, England, Northern France,
Switzerland, and the regions of the Rhine,
from It's sources to'its mouth, we're Christian
lied by the Irish Church. in, the period from
the fifth to the ninth century and the whole
Northwestern Europe, from the mouth of
the Loire to the mouth of the Elbe, and from
Bobbio to Iona, was covered with Irish Emo
nasteries, F" and traversed in all directions by
Irish '.monks.n Notthat all these mission
aries were natives of Ireland but they were
called by their adyersaries, the Roman priests,
Irish or Iro-Scottisli priests, because they had
received their education in some Irish school
and professed that Christianity which origi-
nally issued from ireland. They formed,
whatever their nationality might be, one sim
gle body, one single Church, the Culdee-Kirk,
recognizing only some head, Christ, and our
leader, St. Patrick'' The outposts against
the heathens were mere missionary stations,
but already on the second line were found
large number Of fourishing Christian schools
there were IS in Rheta, Helvetia, and Al
EMMA, 10 in Alsatia in Lothringia, &c,
while on the basis Of the whole order all the
original starting points of the movements,
Armagh, Banclior. Iona, &c. had developed
into great centres or learning, celebrated uni
versitiess Armagh had, in the seventh and
eighth centuries, generally over 5000 stu
dents within its precincts, and enjoyed re-
nown like that of the later universities of
Paris, Prague, Bologna, and Salamanca.
Each nation the Scots, the Saxons the
Franks, &C., occupied street of it's own,
and all the brightest youths of Western Eu-
rope journeyed to Armagh to get an educa-
ton. And thejourney was not in vain. The
Irish scholars were the only men in Western
Europe who could read the New Testament
IN that language in which 1t was written -
They were the true heirs of the mathemat,-
cal, astronomical, geographical, and medical
knowledge of the Alexandrian philosophers
To them owe we many of the best manu-
scripts of ancient authors. The music (hymns)
and painting (book illustrations, aresthe only
sparks of art which sprung from the dark
ages. Armagh. however, was not the centre
Of the Culdee- Kirk it was Iona. From Iona
the Cudee-Kirk was governed. How Well,
that Is very difficult question. Take a toy,
for instance, a mannikin. It's every limb is
put in motion by separate ling. and all
these strings unite in central cord leading
to one single point of movement and control.
1t is an intricate affair, but by dint Of due at
tention you may succeed in comprehendng
the structure and working of the whole
mechanism, and find ont where the Pope sits.
and where the prelates, each in his diocese
4 yea, IL you have some knack for the scientific
you may even come to understand why all the
prelates begin to fiutter when you pull the
Pope, and why the Pope begins to nod when
you pull one of the prelates. The question
is certainly difficult here too, but 1t is solva
ble Take then, living man in the full
stream of passionate action. The point of
movement and control is now not Pope with
a string around the neck of every prelate but
an invisible, undefuable something which we
call spirit, and this circumstance makes the
question too difficult to be answered by
newspaper writer, though perhaps not to be
understood by his readers
Meanwhile, Rome had also grown great and
become strong. The Roman Emperor had
died, and the Pope took the inheritance The
secret of thesuccess of the Papacy is the mag
ic effect which the word Rome exercised in
those days on all mems minds. If the Pope
had resided in any other city, there would
\ hav baan I'D II.