Content Early Christian Ireland - Charles-Edwards, T. M.

Cambridge University Press
0521363950 - Early Christian Ireland - T. M. Charles-Edwards

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EARLY CHRISTIAN IRELAND
This is the rst fully documented history of Ireland and the Irish
between the fourth and ninth centuries , from Saint Patrick to
the Vikings the earliest period for which historical records are
available.
It opens with the Irish raids and settlements in Britain, and the
conversion of Ireland to Christianity. It ends as Viking attacks on
Ireland accelerated in the second quarter of the ninth century. The
book takes account of the Irish both at home and abroad, including the Irish in northern Britain, in England and on the continent.
Two principal thematic strands are the connection between the
early Irish Church and its neighbours, and the rise of the U Nill
and the kingship of Tara.
The author, Thomas Charles-Edwards, is Professor of Celtic in the
University of Oxford. His previous books include Bechbretha (,
with Fergus Kelly), The Welsh Laws () and Early Irish and Welsh
Kinship ().
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E A R LY C H R I S T I A N
IRELAND
T. M . C H A R L E S - E DWA R D S
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The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge , UK www.cup.cam.ac.uk
West th Street, New York, , USA www.cup.org
Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne , Australia
Ruiz de Alarcn , Madrid, Spain
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
Typeface Monotype Baskerville /. pt. System QuarkXPress
[ ]
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Charles-Edwards, T. M.
Early Christian Ireland / T. M. Charles-Edwards.
p.
cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
(hb)
. Ireland Church history. I. Title.
BR.C
.dc -
hardback
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Contents
page viii
ix
xi
xii
xiii
xvi
xix
List of maps
List of tables
List of gures
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
A note on pronunciation
A note on the Chronicle of Ireland
Introduction
Ireland in the seventh century: a tour

(i) The lands of the southern U Nill
(ii) The lands of the Connachta
(iii) The north-east
Irish society c. : . Communities
(i) Free and unfree, noble and commoner

(ii) Communities
(a) Kinship
(b) Gens
(c) Neighbours
(d) Tath
(e) The household (muinter)
(f) The retinue, the warband and the company of boys (dis, fan
and macrad)
(g) Fosterage
(h) Church and monastery
Irish society c. : . Social distinctions and moral values

(i) The problem of incommensurable status
(ii) The hierarchies of status
(iii) Honour and moral values
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vi
Contents
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
Ireland and Rome

From the Late Iron Age to Early Christian Ireland
Irish settlements in Britain
Language and identity in western Britain
The ogam inscriptions in Ireland and the beginnings of literacy
The Latin culture of Ireland and Britain before
Conversion to Christianity
The evidence
Conversion and culture
Palladius
Patrick
The development of the mission
The organisation of the early Irish Church
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(i) Bishops and monastic paruchiae

(ii) Scholars, bishops and abbots
(iii) Bishops, scribes, scholars and the tath
Columba, Iona and Lindisfarne

(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
The sources
Columbas education
The foundation of Iona
Columba and the Picts
Iona and the English
Insular art
Columbanus and his disciples
The Paschal controversy

(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
Time, power and the calendar

Exegesis
The development of the controversy
The seriousness of the issues
The primatial claims of Armagh, Kildare and Canterbury

(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
Bishops, metropolitans and archbishops

The Collectio Canonum Hibernensis and the Book of the Angel
Kildare and the Romani
The claims of Wilfrid and Theodore
The dating of the Irish texts relevant to the issue of an Irish
archbishopric
The origins and rise of the U Nill
The kingship of Tara
(i) Perceptions of Tara
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Contents
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)
(x)
The powers of kings

(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
Tara and Tailtiu

Tara and the kingship of Ireland
Druimm Cete, the U Nill and Osraige
The partiality of Baile Chuinn
Non-U Nill kings of Tara
The annals and the king-lists
Variations in the power of the king of Tara
The Airgalla and the U Nill
The kingship of Tara in the laws
The scal resources of kings
Free peoples and base-client peoples
Frithfolad Muman
Fortatha, external peoples
The enach
The cin
The power of the U Nill in the eighth century
vii
Conclusion
Appendix: Genealogies and king-lists

Glossary: Irish and Latin
Bibliography
Index
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Maps
The kingdoms of the southern U Nill

Brega
Mide and Tethbae
Peoples and kingdoms of Connaught
Sites in Connaught
The north-west
The north-east
Three zones of Roman inuence in Ireland
Leinster peoples and kingdoms
Sites in Leinster
The Irish in Britain
The northern frontier of Leinster
Munster peoples and kingdoms
Sites in Munster
page
viii
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Tables
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Northern and southern clientship compared

page
Crth Gablach on lay status
Uraicecht na Rar and Uraicecht Becc on poets and the laity
Uraicecht Becc on kings, nobles and churchmen
Columbanus education
Associates of St Patrick
Oces and places
Scribae and sapientes in the Annals of Ulster up to
Scribae and sapientes: AU gures compared with inclusive

gures
Titles and places
Churches in Brega associated with bishops and scribes,
Kingdoms and churches in Brega
The incidence of patronymics in ecclesiastical obits in

AU
Plurality of ecclesiastical titles in AU
The incidence of patronymics
The chronology of feasts in the Synoptic Gospels
The Celtic reconstruction
Cummians reconstruction
Bedes exegesis
The Victorian and Dionysiac cycles compared
Justinian and the ranks of bishop
Leinster king-list
Kings of Tara
The Tara king-lists to
Kings of Tara omitted by Baile Chuinn
An emended version of the Middle Irish king-list,

The feuds of the U Nill,
ix
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x
.
.
.
.
.
List of tables
The opposing sides at Mag Rath
The opposing sides at th Goan
An amended version of the Middle Irish king-list to
Chronicle of Ireland
Regional kings in Munster
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Figures
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Development of the Patrician texts

Sl Fergusa Cechin
Patricks ctional kindred
U Ailella bishops
U Amolngada and U F achrach Maide/Muirsce
Brn of Caisel Irro
Dl Sailni
Kinship and fosterage
Descendants
Ancestor-focus and ego-focus
Collateral inheritance
The problem of resharing
Alternation and fatherson succession to the kingdom
of Tara
The ancestresses of Muiredach
The ogam alphabet
(The memorial) of Voteporix (ogam inscription)
Dl Rata to c.
The Merovingian kings
Cenl Conaill and the abbots of Iona
Patrick and the sons of Nall
Early Leinster
Cenl Conaill and Baile Chuinn
The feuds of the Southern U Nill
The Airgalla, the Connachta and the U Nill
The Mugdorna
The principal oganachta
page
xi
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Acknowledgements
This book derives from an invitation by David Dumville to contribute to

a Cambridge History of Ireland. I am very grateful to him for the initial
stimulus and subsequent encouragement. Fergus Kelly, Clare Stanclie,
Paul Russell and Luned Davies have read all or part of the book and
allowed me to see important work of their own in advance of publication. The important book by Colmn Etchingham, Church Organization in
Ireland AD to (Maynooth, ) was only published when this
book was at the press; it would, no doubt, have much improved my
chapter . The quality of the maps (but not any mistakes they may
contain) is due to help given by Elizabeth OBrien, Edel Bhreathnach,
Paul Synnott and Barry Masterson. Richard Sharpe allowed me to read
his unpublished editions of the early lives of Brigit. Particular chapters
have been much improved by reading unpublished theses by Catherine
Swift and Philip Irwin. Like many others I have been the recipient of
many precious items from the treasure-chest of scholarship kept and
most generously disbursed by Francis John Byrne. As the Welsh poet
remarked of Urien his king, As he gathered so he gave. My rst steps
in early Irish history were taken under the expert guidance of D. A.
Binchy and Gearid Mac Niocaill when I was a scholar at the Dublin
Institute for Advanced Studies; any subsequent progress has been helped
by the example, learning and friendly encouragement of one of my
fellow-scholars in , Donnchadh Corrin. My wife and children
have had to endure the company of someone who seemed much more
concerned with the late seventh than with the late twentieth century.
That the book has nally appeared at all is due to the forbearance and
care of the Cambridge University Press, and in particular its senior
commissioning editor, William Davies, and the copy-editor, Rosemary
Williams.
xii
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Abbreviations
Acta Sanctorum (Bollandists)

Analecta Bollandiana
Annals of Clonmacnois, ed. D. Murphy, The Annals of
Clonmacnois (Dublin, )
Adomnn, VSC Adomnn, Vita Sancti Columbae, ed. A. O. Anderson
and M. O. Anderson, rev. edn by M. O. Anderson,
Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford, )
Annals of Inisfallen, ed. and tr. S. Mac Airt, The
AI
Annals of Inisfallen (MS. Rawlinson B. ) (Dublin, )
AT
Annals of Tigernach, ed. and tr. W. Stokes, Revue
Celtique, (), ; (), , ,
; (), , , ; reprinted
in two vols. (Felinfach, )
AU
Annals of Ulster (with the corrected dates as in
the edn of S. Mac Airt and G. Mac Niocaill, The
Annals of Ulster (to AD ), Part I. Text and Translation,
Dublin, )
BAR
British Archaeological Reports (Oxford)
Bede, HE
Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica
BN , etc.
Bretha Nemed texts numbered, ed. and tr. L. Breatnach,
Uraicecht na Rar (Dublin, )
CCCM
Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis
(Turnhout, )
CCSG
Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca (Turnhout)
CCSL
Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina (Turnhout,
)
CGH i
Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae, i, ed. M. A. OBrien
(Dublin, )
CGSH
Corpus Genealogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae, ed. P. Riain
(Dublin, )
AASS
AB
AClon
xiii
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xiv
List of abbreviations
Corpus Iuris Hibernici, ed. D. A. Binchy (Dublin, )

R. A. S. Macalister, Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum
Celticarum, vols. (Dublin, ; vol. repr.
Blackrock, Co. Dublin, )
CMCS
Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies (nos. ), continued
as Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies (nos. )
CS
Chronicum Scotorum, ed. and tr. W. M. Hennessy,
Chronicum Scotorum: A Chronicle of Irish Aairs from the
Earliest Times to AD (London, )
CSEL
Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
(Vienna, )
DIL
Contributions to a Dictionary of the Irish Language, ed.
E. G. Quin et al. (Dublin, )
EIWK
T. M. Charles-Edwards, Early Irish and Welsh Kinship
(Oxford, )
ECMW
V. Nash-Williams, The Early Christian Monuments of
Wales (Cardi, )
Fl
The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee: Flire engusso Cli
D, ed. and tr. W. Stokes, Henry Bradshaw Society,
(London, ; repr. Dublin, )
Heist, Vitae
Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae e Codice olim Salmanticensi nunc
Bruxellensi, ed. W. W. Heist, Subsidia Hagiographica,
(Brussels, )
Hib.
Collectio Canonum Hibernensis, ed. F. W. H.
Wasserschleben, Die irische Kanonensammlung, nd edn
(Leipzig, )
Hogan, Onom. E. Hogan, Onomasticon Goedelicum Locorum et Tribuum
Hiberniae et Scotiae (Dublin, )
JRSAI
Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
Kenney, The Sources J. F. Kenney, The Sources for the Early History of
Ireland: Ecclesiastical, Records of Civilization (New
York, )
LL
The Book of Leinster, Formerly Lebar na Nachongbla, ed.
O. Bergin, R. I. Best, M. A. OBrien and A.
OSullivan, vols. (Dublin, )
Lwe (ed.), Die Iren und Europa H. Lwe (ed.), Die Iren und Europa,
vols., Verentlichungen des Europa Zentrums
Tbingen (Stuttgart, )
MGH
Monumenta Germaniae Historica
AA
Auctores Antiquissimi
CIH
CIIC
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List of abbreviations
xv
SRG
Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum in usum

scholarum
SRM
Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum.
Muirch, Vita S. Patricii Muirch, Vita S. Patricii, ed. and tr. L. Bieler
with F. Kelly, The Patrician Texts in the Book of Armagh,
Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, (Dublin, )
N Chathin and Richter (eds.), Irland und Europa
P. N Chathin
and M. Richter (eds.), Irland und Europa: Die Kirche im
Frhmittelalter / Ireland and Europe: The Early Church,
Verentlichungen des Europa Zentrums Tbingen,
Kulturwissentschaftliche Reihe (Stuttgart, )
N Chathin and Richter (eds.), Irland und die Christenheit P. N
Chathin and M. Richter (eds.), Irland und die
Christenheit: Bibelstudien und Mission (Stuttgart, )
PG
J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologia Graeca, vols. (Paris,
)
PL
J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologia Latina, vols. (Paris,
)
PLRE
A. H. M. Jones, J. Morris and J. Martindale, The
Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vols.
(Cambridge, )
Plummer, Vitae Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae, ed. C. Plummer, vols.
(Oxford, )
PRIA
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy
RC
Revue Celtique
SC
Sources Chrtiennes (Paris)
Trechn, Collectanea
Trechn, Collectanea, in The Patrician Texts in the
Book of Armagh, ed. and tr. L. Bieler with F. Kelly
Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, (Dublin, )
UJA
Ulster Journal of Archaeology
Vita Tripartita Sancti Patricii, ed. K. Mulchrone, Bethu
VT2
Phtraic: The Tripartite Life of Patrick (Dublin, )
ZCP
Zeitschrift fr celtische Philologie
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There is no room here for a full discussion of the pronunciation of early

Irish names, but some important points can be covered. (For further
guidance, see P. Russell, An Introduction to the Celtic Languages, London,
, pp. .)
Normally, Irish words were stressed on the rst syllable. Towards the
end of the period covered by this book this initial stress caused vowels in
other syllables to be reduced to the murmur vowel (as in the second syllable of English father). This did not, however, aect long vowels, normally denoted in Old Irish by an acute accent (a long a is thus ). The
main diculty, however, is with the consonants. Most consonants have
two values, mainly depending on whether they are initial or not. So, for
example, deorad foreigner, alien has two ds, one initial, the other nal.
The initial d is pronounced as d, but the nal one as (th as in the).
Similarly, an initial m is pronounced as an m, but a non-initial one (unless
doubled) is a v. A dierent duality is found with c and t: when non-initial
they were pronounced g and d. These principles of early Irish spelling
can be illustrated by a name which recurs frequently in this book,
Adomnn, and by two words, tt, (harp-)string, and c, death. These
were pronounced approximately:
aeovnan, with the stress marked on the initial a. (For the
pronunciation of the a see the end of this note.)
Later the o in the second syllable was reduced to a murmur vowel, represented by an upside-down e. Hence:
aevnan
The other two were:

ted, e g (e d was pronounced approximately as in northern English
made)
It may be noted, rst, that the short a in the rst syllable of Adomnn
or Cathal was normally pronounced further back in the mouth than a
xvi
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xvii
standard English a (to get an approximately correct pronounciation

shorten the long a in father) and, secondly, an s before an e or an i may
well have been pronounced as a sh: hence CaiselCashel.
Another diculty with consonants is that, as in Russian, they may be
either palatal or neutral (slender or broad). This complication will
largely be ignored here for simplicitys sake; where it is shown, this will
be by a superscript i, which indicates that the adjacent consonant is pronounced in the way it would naturally sound before an i or y. Thus
English key has a palatal k, while cap does not. The use of the accent
over a diphthong, such as a (approximately English aye), is to distinguish it from a followed by the glide vowel signifying that the adjacent
consonant is palatal.
In the following suggested pronunciations of some common early Irish
names x stands for the ch in loch; stands for its voiced counterpart, as in
German Tage; stands for the th in thin, to be distinguished from
standing for the th in the; all the names are pronounced with the stress
on the rst syllable:
ed
edn or Adn
Betn
Brega
Cathal
Colmn
Congal
Domnall
Donnchad
ogan
Flaithbertach
Legaire
Mide
Muirchertach
Muirch
Murchad
aie (approximately to rhyme with hythe)

aiean (but anglicised as Aidan), where an rhymes
with Khan
baidan
brea
cal (later th came to be pronounced h, and this
pronunciation is common)
colman
conl
dovnll
donnxe
eon (but later, in Middle Irish, ogan changed to
Egan, and later still the E was dropped and the
came to be pronounced w; hence this name is
commonly pronounced own, to rhyme with low
un)
avrtx
loire
miee (anglicised as Meathme)
murxrtx
muirchu
murxe
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xviii
oins
suivne (the later pronunciation is anglicised as
Sweeney)
Tadgg
taeg (often pronounced taig)
In the names of kindreds (including royal dynasties), it is customary to
use a relatively modern pronunciation for U descendants:
U Nill
ne ill (the ll is slender or palatal)
U causes the following letter to have its internal value:
U Dnlainge
eunle
U elides a following F and changes S to h (this is shown by a superscript
dot):
U Felin
ailain.
engus
Suibne
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A note on the Chronicle of Ireland
The Chronicle of Ireland is a handy term for the parent-text lying

behind the extant annals up to , in very much the same way as one
Alfredian text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle lies behind extant copies.
It is believed that up to c. this single source was written on Iona; from
then until it was continued at a monastery in the Irish midlands,
probably in Brega. From the text represented by the main hand of
the Annals of Ulster was continued at Armagh until the break in the text
in the twelfth century, but other annals derive from a continuation
written at Clonmacnois. Hence, for the period before , if the Annals
of Ulster agree with any of the Clonmacnois group of annals, one can
be reasonably certain that the entry in question derives from the
Chronicle of Ireland. However, it is very likely for other reasons that
many other entries, now preserved only in one branch of the tradition,
also go back to the Chronicle of Ireland.
xix
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Cambridge University Press

0521363950 - Early Christian Ireland - T. M. Charles-Edwards

EARLY CHRISTIAN IRELAND

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Ireland in the seventh century: a tour

Irish society c. : . Communities

(i) Free and unfree, noble and commoner

Irish society c. : . Social distinctions and moral values

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Ireland and Rome

The organisation of the early Irish Church

(i) Bishops and monastic paruchiae

Columba, Iona and Lindisfarne

Columbanus and his disciples

The Paschal controversy

Time, power and the calendar

The primatial claims of Armagh, Kildare and Canterbury

Bishops, metropolitans and archbishops

The origins and rise of the U Nill

The kingship of Tara

(i) Perceptions of Tara

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

The powers of kings

Tara and Tailtiu

Appendix: Genealogies and king-lists

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

The kingdoms of the southern U Nill

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Northern and southern clientship compared

Uraicecht na Rar and Uraicecht Becc on poets and the laity

Uraicecht Becc on kings, nobles and churchmen

Oces and places

Scribae and sapientes in the Annals of Ulster up to

Scribae and sapientes: AU gures compared with inclusive

Titles and places

Churches in Brega associated with bishops and scribes,

Kingdoms and churches in Brega

The incidence of patronymics in ecclesiastical obits in

Plurality of ecclesiastical titles in AU

The incidence of patronymics

The chronology of feasts in the Synoptic Gospels

The Celtic reconstruction

The Victorian and Dionysiac cycles compared

Justinian and the ranks of bishop

The Tara king-lists to

Kings of Tara omitted by Baile Chuinn

An emended version of the Middle Irish king-list,

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Development of the Patrician texts

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

This book derives from an invitation by David Dumville to contribute to