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Lineaments in the Conspectus
and of Chlothair, king of Neustria, declined late in life
the recall to his well loved Luxeuil. Gallus similarly
declined the preferred government of Luxeuil and the
bishopric of Constance. Virgilius, tho appointed bishop
of Salzburg by Pope Stephen II and King Pepin, de-
ferred his consecration for two years. Donatus hesitated
to accept the see of Fiesole. Dungal, high in the esteem
of Charlemagne, specially desired that he might occupy
no higher station in the church than simple deacon. Ultan
is represented with a crown at his feet to signify his
contempt for the things of the earth.
Not less striking were the mortifications they involun-
tarily endured. Columcille, a scion of the royal Hy Nial,
lived on bread and water and vegetables, as often as not
on common nettles; he slept on the bare sand with a
stone for pillow, his pallet betimes the naked rock.
Adamnan lived at Coludi on two meals a week and fre-
quently passed the whole night in vigil. Columbanus,
unwitting rival of St. Benedict, subsisted for three weeks
on grass and bilberries and the bark of trees. His fol-
lowers and successors, tho in many instances of princely
birth and upbringing, were scarcely less given to frugal
fare. Not St. Gall and Lure alone had princes for ab-
bots: Waldebert, Count of Meaux and Ponthieu, ruled
Luxeuil with unparalleled success for forty years. Despite
their self-denial, the complaint was made at an
early stage that the monks of Luxeuil by their clearances
and cultivation were destroying the chase in the surround-
ing woods.1
lAs the purpose here is to give a preliminary bird's-eye view numerous
footnotes have been avoided. These where useful will come later.