Part 2 (1/2)
[3] 'It is quite true,' says Dr. Sullivan, 'that the central power was not always strong enough to enforce rights, and in many instances was defeated in its attempt to do so. But in what does this differ from other federal states, ancient and modern? The Emperors of Germany were not always able to subdue and to enforce their decrees against the princes and n.o.bles of the Empire, and in numerous instances the decisions of the imperial chancery might be regarded in precisely the same light--as mere arbitrations. To say there was no law, properly speaking, seems to me wholly irreconcilable with actual facts, and _especially with the existence of a rich and elaborate nomenclature of native terms not borrowed from Roman law_. This nomenclature implies an equally elaborate machinery. It was the existence of this legal system which kept out the canon law, which never, for instance, succeeded in suppressing or even modifying the marriage customs. In discussing the laws and inst.i.tutions of early nations we are liable to go to one or other of two extremes:--(1) We represent the laws, &c., in terms of modern law, by which we make inchoate inst.i.tutions full-grown, while the germs of a legal system are represented as a fully developed code; or (2) we deny the existence of all law and legislation. You are right I think as regards the Church; for owing to the organisation of the old Celtic Church it was perfectly acephalous. Whatever influence it did exert was individual and never official, and, therefore, not continuous--it might be described in fact as sporadic influence.'
[4] 'All through the laws,' says Dr. Sullivan, 'there is ample evidence to prove that the tribesmen, or _Aires_, were bound to take stock from the _Ri_, or chief, only. The amount of this stock, called _Saer_, or free-stock, is strictly laid down, and the amount of the tribute payable for this stock, called _Bestigi_, or house-refection, or tribute, is also strictly laid down. But if the _Ri_ were wealthy he might offer more stock to his _Ceiles_, clients or va.s.sals, on condition of paying him certain dues, called _Biatad_. The stock so given was called _Daer_, or base-stock; and its acceptance by a tribesman made a _Daer-ceile_ of him, and placed him very much in the power of the _Ri_, or chief. No tribesman could accept _Daer-stock_ without the consent of his _Fine_, or sept, which would be bound by the acts of its members. A tribesman, with the consent of his _Fine_, might accept _Daer-stock_ from any _Flath_, or lord, in his own _Tuath_, or tribe. All the above applies to the tribesmen, or _Aires_, who alone const.i.tuted the free cla.s.s. But besides the _Ceiles_, or clients, or free tribesmen, or _Aires_, there was another cla.s.s, called _Fuidirs_. The markland of the tribe and the land held in severalty of the _Ri_, and the similar land of the _Cendfinne_, or chieftain (or captain, as he is called in the Scottish Highlands) of a sept was let out to various cla.s.ses of _Fuidirs_. Some were _Saer_, or free _Fuidirs_, and others _Daer_, or base Fuidirs. The _Saer-fuidirs_, again, were of two sorts--broken tribesmen who went into another _Tuath_ and got stock as well as land from a _Ri_, or _Flath_, and _Saer-fuidirs_ who possessed some stock of their own which they grazed on land of a chief or of a _Flath_. Some of these free _Fuidirs_ entered into _daer_, or servitude, by accepting stock under certain conditions. The _Fuidir_ cla.s.ses were the true tenants at will. The _Aires_ were of the clan, the _Fuidirs_, _Bottachs_, or cottiers, and other servile cla.s.ses, _belonged_ to the clan. The giving and taking of _Daer-stock_ depended upon the impoverishment of a sept through cattle murrain, the levying of blood-fines on account of the misconduct of some of its members, &c. But the whole thing was voluntary, and depended on the poverty of a sept and the wealth and ability of the _Ri_, or _Flath_.'
[5] Dr. Sullivan does not think Christianity was fully established by the middle of the seventh century. 'The Irish Church organisation,' he says, 'was ill calculated to influence the social habits and the political life of the people; unlike the diocesan and centralised system of the Latin Church. Hence a high spiritual life and intellectual cultivation within the numerous coen.o.biums was quite compatible with practical paganism and disorder outside.'
[6] 'At all times' must be understood to refer only to those comparatively modern ages above mentioned.
[7] 'The election,' says Dr. Sullivan, 'was always from the _Geilfine_, or relatives within the fifth degree. Should the _Geilfine_ fail, or be all killed in battle, the _Derbfine_, or relatives from the fifth to the ninth degree, came in.'
[8] 'This,' says Dr. Sullivan, 'is not right. There was the ”joint undivided family” formed by the _Bo-aire_ cla.s.s, or freemen possessed of cattle. The poorer _Flaths_, or heads of septs, did not gavel their possessions, but either elected a tanist or formed a ”joint undivided family.” When the property of an _Aire_ was not sufficient to gavel, so as to qualify one or more _Aires_, the division of the inheritance did not take place, but the parties agreed to form a ”_joint_ undivided family.” In such a family one was head, and as such was an _Aire_.
_Bo-aires_ of this cla.s.s, to avoid the gavelling of their property, elected a _Tanist_--the _Tanaise Bo-aire_. Poor and broken tribesmen, not having sufficient wealth to qualify them as _Aires_, formed a ”joint-family,” or _Congilda_. Every _Flath_, or head of a sept, had a tanist also. The Irish ”joint-family” was an inst.i.tution of great importance and of surpa.s.sing interest in the comparative history of the Aryan family.'
[9] 'This account of Davies,' says Dr. Sullivan, 'is entirely wrong. The law of the distribution of the property of a deceased tribesman was most carefully laid down. No doubt then as now, and naturally more frequently then than now, a chief, or head of a sept, or of a _Treb_ (homestead) might usurp power he did not possess, and do wrong.'
[10] 'Marriages in Ireland,' says Dr. Sullivan, 'were not regulated by canon law. The Irish marriage customs were in full force long after the Norman conquest. According to these customs, which appear to have been wholly uninfluenced by the canon law, b.a.s.t.a.r.dy was entirely different from what that term implied in countries under canon law, and in modern times. The Irish marriage customs should consequently be taken into account here, as they sanctioned a kind of polygamy, divorce, &c. See also the excommunication in 1282, by the Archbishop of Canterbury against Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, at the request of Edward I., in which the marriage customs of the Welsh, identical with those of the Irish, const.i.tute one of the charges.'
[11] _Le Resolution des justices touchant le Irish custome de gavelkind._ Reported by Sir John Davies, A.G., 3 Jac. i.
[12] Dr. Sullivan believes the story of the decision against Columba to be a mere myth.
[13] 'The Irish Church,' says Dr. Sullivan, 'had undoubtedly two distinct phases of monasticism: one that of the Patrician period--an obscure but highly important and interesting phase; the other, that of the sixth and subsequent centuries, to which the Irish missionaries belonged.'
[14] 'Besides,' says Dr. Sullivan, 'the monastic bishop proper, who furnished the wandering Scotic bishops of the Middle Ages, there is a later development of a higher church organisation in the tribal bishop, who was a close approximation to a diocesan bishop. The tribal bishop was a bishop who had jurisdiction over the whole of a _Tuath_, and sometimes even a _Mor Tuath_. The growth of territorial jurisdiction is well marked by the prestige attached to the office--the bishop ranked in fact almost on a level with the chief, and was ent.i.tled to the same legal retinue.
Many of the ancient dioceses, and some of the existing ones, _e.g._ Ross, Kilmacduagh, Kilfenora, represent ancient _Tuaths_, or tribe territories.
Several deaneries were former dioceses, and are co-extensive with ancient _Tuatha_.
[15] Dr. Sullivan warns me not to attribute too much influence to the Danish Church. 'The tribe-bishop,' he says, 'was a much earlier development, and proves the growth of diocesan jurisdiction and the consequent merging of the Irish Church in the Latin Church. The acceptance of the Roman time for celebrating Easter by the Irish Church and the constant intercourse between Ireland and the Continent had brought the Irish Church fully under Roman supremacy three and a half centuries earlier. What really took place in the early part of the twelfth century was the more complete adoption of the organisation of the Western Church, and of the principles of the canon law; and especially the granting of lands and charters to the Church in the same way as in feudal lands. The marriage of Irish princes with Saxon and other foreign princesses, and the growth of towns which helped to relax its rigid tribal system, did more than the Danish Church.' The chief towns were, however, of Danish origin.
CHAPTER II.
THE SCANDINAVIAN ELEMENT.
[Sidenote: First appearance of the Northmen, 795.]
Norwegian s.h.i.+ps began to appear on the Irish coast in 795, one year after the destruction of the church at Lindisfarne. The islands were harried, Lambay being perhaps the first to suffer; everything of value was taken, and the hermits and anchorites were killed or carried away. Iona, where the greatest of Irish saints had founded a new Church, was burned or plundered in 802 and 806. About twelve years after their first visit the Scandinavians began to venture inland, sacking the monasteries, which contained such wealth as Ireland then possessed, and slaughtering the monks. The famous religious community at Bangor, in Down, was thus destroyed about 824. The first permanent settlement of the northern invaders was perhaps in the neighbourhood of Limerick. They had a fort at Cork before 848, and at Dublin before 852. There were also forts on Lough Foyle and at Waterford. The flat coast between Dublin and the borders of Meath lay open to a floating enemy, and early obtained the name of Fingal, or the land of the stranger.
[Sidenote: Turgesius, 830.]
In or about 830 a chief arrived who pursued a more ambitious policy. He is called Turgeis or Turgesius by the Irish, and by the Irish only: this may be a form of Thorkils or Trygve, and may perhaps be a name applied to the mysterious hero whom the Scandinavians call Ragnar Lodbrok. Turgesius landed in Ulster, and planned the complete subjugation of Ireland. He burned Armagh and drove out St. Patrick's successor, and then took up a central position near Athlone, whence his flotillas could act on Lough Ree and Lough Dearg. We know that the Northmen dragged s.h.i.+ps or boats overland to Loch Lomond, and similar feats may have been performed in Ireland. There was another plundering station on Lough Neagh about the same time.
Turgeis mastered the northern half of Ireland, and made frequent incursions into the other half. Against the Church he showed peculiar animosity, and his wife used the high altar at Clonmacnoise as a throne when she gave audience; perhaps she uttered oracular responses from it.
In the south Turgeis was less powerful, for the dispossessed abbot of Armagh took refuge at Emly in Tipperary. But the whole coast was attacked by innumerable corsairs, who sometimes made raids far into the central districts. Dublin was fortified by the Norwegians about 840, and became the chief seat of the Scandinavian power. Turgeis did not live to unite the various bands, but fell into the hands of Malachi, King of Meath, in 845, and was drowned in Lough Owel. The Northmen of Limerick were defeated in the same year at Roscrea, and their earl, Olfin, was slain.[16]
[Sidenote: A.D. 852.
The Black and White Gentiles.]
Seven years after the death of Turgeis came the Black Gentiles, who are generally supposed to have been Danes, as the White Gentiles were certainly Norwegians. Whether the colour of their armour or their complexion was referred to is doubtful. The new-comers made themselves masters of Dublin, and of the plunder which the first invaders had acc.u.mulated from all the Irish churches. Before one of the battles fought to decide whether Black or White Pagans were to enjoy this property, Horm, or Gorm, the Danish chief, is said to have invoked St. Patrick, a singular confusion of ideas, which may have resulted from intercourse with Christians in England. Victory followed. The Black Gentiles seem to have retained their supremacy; but the distinction becomes partly obliterated, and the Danes, of whom we read later, were probably intermingled with Norwegians. It is recorded that Amlaf, son of the King of Norway, came to Ireland in 852 or 853, that all the foreigners of Erin submitted to him, and that the Irish also paid tribute. The name of the Black Gentiles is believed to be preserved in the little town of Baldoyle.