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The Early Celtic Church in Scotland. 21
"(y Cromin the Bishop.—At another time a stranger from
the province of the Munstormen. wlin, in his iuunility, did all he
could to disguise himself, so that nobody might know that he was a
bishop, came to the saint ; but his rank could not be hidden from
the saint. For next I,ord's day, being invited by the saint, as
the custom was, to consecrate the Body of Christ, he asked the
saint to join him, that, as two priests, they might break the
bread of the Loi'd together. The saint went to the altar accordingly,
and, suddenly looking into the stranger's face, thus
addressed him:— 'Christ bless thee, brother; do thou break the
bread alone, according to the Episcopal rite, for I know now that
thou art a bishop. Why has thou disguised thyself so long, and
prevented our giving thee the honour we owe to thee? On hearing
the saint's words, the humble stranger was greatly astonished,
and adored Chiist in His saint, and the bystanders in amazement
gave glory to God."
We tind too that when a mission was sent to a distance, the
leader was ordained a bishop, so that he might be able to ordain
local clergy, and in this case the office of abbot and bishop was
generally combined. The three abbots who ruled at Lindesfarne,
while the Church there was subject to lona, wei-e ordained bishops
at lona.
The tribal organisation of the Church seems to have been a
counterpart of the tribal organisation of the people among whom it
arose. There seems to have been no head of the Irish Church. Each
saint boi"e rule over all the monasteries founded by him, and hia
disciples, and the abbot of the head monastery succeeded to this
jurisdiction. Thus the Abbot of lona, which had the premacy
among the foundations of Columba, ruled over all the monasteries
founded by him in Ireland and Scotland, and this continued till
the community at lona was broken up. The monks belonging to
the foundations of one saint thus formed an ecclesiastical tribe,
and in the same way the monks in each monastery foimed a subtribe.
There was, too, a regular law of succession to the headship
of a monastery. We find mention of lay tribes and monastic
tribes in the Brehon laws, and elaborate rules are laid down for
the succession to an Abbacy. Thus the succession was first in the
tribe of the patron saint, next in the tribe of the land, or to whicli
the land had belonged, next to one of the tine manach, that is,
the monastic tribe, or family li\ing in the monastery, next to the
anoit Church, next to a dalta Church, next to a compairche
Church, next to neighbouring cill Church, and lastly to a pilgrim.
That is, if there was a person in the monastery of the tribe of the