The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

126 T II E H I G H LANDERS [part I
this period the abbots of the monasteries were universally presb\ters,
while the monks remained laymen as before. They thus
in some degree dispensed with the services of the neighbouring
clergy, and while the bishop was obliged to render assistance to
the monastery in matters A\hich belonged exclusively to his
order to perform, the abbot was relieved entirely from his jurisdiction.
Such was the condition of these societies when Saint
Martin established the first European monastery at Tours.
The monks still consisted of laymen, and the abbot was an
ordained presbyter. The dangerous consequences likely to
result from such an institution,
if elevated bevond its original
position, were not seen, and its advantages and merits were
over-estimated to such a degree as to facilitate their rapid
advance to power. To the progress which the}' had already
made, Martin added the step of providing a bishop for the
e.vclusive use of the monastery, who was elected by the abbot
and monks, and ordained by the adjacent bishops to the end
that he might preach and do episcopal offices in the monastery ;
and this bishop was obliged to reside within its walls, and submit
to its monastic rule. In this state Saint Patrick arrived at
Tours, and there can be little doubt that it was under the
teaching of Saint Martin, who was his uncle, that he framed the
.system of church polity which he afterwards introduced into
Ireland. In that .system we should consequently expect to find
the same weight and preference given to the monastic institutions
over the clerical which Saint Martin had already manifested,
and that the same effect should follow from that preference, of
an additional step in their progress being attained b}' the
monastic orders at the expense of the secular clergy.
Now, in examining the Culdee monasteries, the first peculi-
arity which strikes us is, that the monks were no longer laymen,
but ordained clergymen, ^ and in this that church is certainly
an exception to all other churches. But we find a still more
remarkable peculiarity in their system, for we see many of the
abbots of their monasteries possessing the same character,
e.xercising the same functions, and in every respect occupying
'
This fact is acknowledged by all from it, and the peculiarity of such a
who have written upon the subject, circumstance, does not appear to have
although the inference to be drawn been perceived.