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1
SECULAR CANONS.—SCHOOL OF YORK. 9
withal but little whereon to live
'
word Colidei
is an inversion of Dcicolcc, and has originated the
term Culdee, which lias been so long supposed to
belong to the Columban monks of the sixth and
seventh centuries. This is a supposition entirely
destitute of authority. The name was unknown to
Bede, to Eddi, and to Adamnan. It was first applied
to anchorites, Deicola being the Latin equivalent of
the term Gode-fri/iic, or God-fearing, which was the
appellation commonly given to them. It afterwards
appears to have been assigned to canon clerics.
" Those of Canterbury we find called in a charter by
king Ethelred, in 1006, cultores clerici, or cleric Godworshippers,
the word Z>i?/ being evidently implied."'
Raine says that the canons of York were called Culdecs
as late as the reign of Henry I. The number of
canons in the Minster of York in Archbishop Albert's
time appears to have been seven, who lived out of a
common fund.
The school of York was carried on with indefatigable
zeal under the joint government of Albert and
Alcuin. The nucleus of a library had been formed
by Egbert. It was very greatly augmented by the
unsparing munificence and personal solicitude of
these two great scholars, who shrank not from the
toil of long journeys to Italy and other countries to
gather up precious manuscripts to add to its stores.
Alcuin enumerates with delight in his poem the
names of the various authors whose writings were
thus acquired.
The renovation of the Minster was one of Albert's
'
See Skene's "Celtic Scotland," ii. p. 245.