Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

282 Old Irish Religions.
protesting the antiquity of his own practice. McFirbis's
MS. speaks thus of the year S96— " In this year the men
of Erin consented to receive jurisdiction and one rule from
Adamnan respecting the celebration of Easter on Sunday
on the 14th of the moon of April, and the coronal tonsure
of Peter was performed upon the clerics of Erin."
Again,
it says, " The clergy of Erin held many Synods, and they
used to come to those Synods with weapons, so that
pitched battles used to be fought between them, and many
used to be slain." After this authority, one need not
wonder at the assertion that Irish Druids formerly led
contending
parties,
the community
lona had certainly a Druidical college till
was expelled by Columba for his own community, and the
Highlanders still recognize it as the Druid's Isle. An old
statistical work says, " The Druids undoubtedly possessed
lona before the introduction of Christianity." It must be
admitted that the Culdees wore a white dress, as did
the
Druids, and that they occupied places which had a Druidical
reputation. They used the Asiatic cross, now called that
of St. Andrew's. Dr. J.
Moore is pleased to say, '' The
Culdees seem to have adopted nearly all the Pagan
symbols of the neighbourhood."
As to the origin of the word. Reeves might well remark
in his notes on Columba's Life, " Culdee is the most abused
term in Scotic church history." As the Ceile De, the Four
Masters mentions them in 806. Todd writes of them
thus — " The earliest Christian missionaries found the native
religion extinct, and themselves took the name of Culdees
from inhabiting the Druids' empty cells." Jamieson styles
them Culdees or Keldees, Kyldees, Kylledei. O'Brien has
them the Irish Ceile De, servant of God. Another calls
them Clann Dia, Children of God. Barber considered
them Mithraists.