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CHAPTER XVIII
FRUITS OF THE IRISH APOSTOLATE
IN ENGLAND
I. "Celtic" Usages and the Synod of Whitby. 2. High
Birth and
Breeding of Irish Founders. 3. Frugality and Devotion of the
Irish Clerics. 4. Colman Founds "Mayo of the Saxons."
i. "CELTIC" USAGES AND THE SYNOD OF WHITBY
THE third bishop of Lindisfarne was Colman, the
last of the three remarkable Irishmen who established
and filled the see. It was during his episcopate
that the Paschal controversy culminated in the
synod of Whitby, which settled it as far as Northumbria
was concerned.
No attempt need be made here to describe in detail the
proceedings at the synod. The original account is to
be found in Bede and accounts based on that of Bede in
almost every English history that has been printed. The
result of it is well known. In sorrow but with decision
Colman resigned his see and with thirty disciples, includ-
ing both Irish and English, departed from England.
Irishmen in great number still taught, nevertheless, in
England, particularly in the South. The greater part of
Ireland had thirty years before conformed to the Roman*
custom 1 and even in the North and in Scotland what
now are called "Celtic" usages the term was unknown
in medieval days were not in universal vogue. The
lAs early as 598 A. D., Columbanus writing from France is found expostulating
with Pope Gregory on the subject and endeavoring to win the
pontiff over to the Irish view. His letter is found among those of St. Gregory's.
Epist.^ CXXVII, Bk. IX, Registrum Epistolarum.
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