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Ireland and the Making
of Britain
The fashions, the ideas, the methods, the points of view,
the motive, spirit, law and rule that formed the current
of Irish civilization found its way into channels of
English life more numerous than it is possible to trace.
But Irish influence is easily followed in many other
directions. Nearly all the monasteries of northern and
central England had been founded by Irish monks and
were tenanted by them and their disciples. They adopted
the rules and usages of the Irish even in critical matters,
like the practise of having double monasteries, so that
monks were often placed under the rule of an abbess.
These and other points of rule and ritual survived long
after the Synod of Whitby and greatly distinguished the
larger part of the English monasteries from those that
had adopted the rule of St. Benedict. Thus there con-
tinued a twofold character and divergence in matters of
discipline, usage and ritual in the English monasteries.
The churches over which Irish influence prevailed were
easily distinguished from those in which continental
custom had been introduced. This does not mean that
there were actual divergences of doctrine; rather was
it a variety of rite and custom.
In the English monasteries the Irish rule continued to
be followed long after Colman turned his back on the
country and went to Ireland. Thus it is noted concerning
Ceolwulf, to whom Bede dedicated his Historia Ecclesi-
atica and who died in retirement in 760, that "when this
king became a monk license was given to the brethren to
drink wine and beer; for down to that time water and
milk alone had been permitted them, according to the
rule of St. Aidan." 1
i Simeon of Durham, II, 102.
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