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22 Gaelic Society of Inverness.
patron saint tit to be abbot, he succeeded ; if not, then the succession
went to one of the tribe from whom the land had been acquired,
and if there was no such, then it went to all the others in succession,
the Churches mentioned being connected in various degrees
with the foundation, the headsliij) of wliich was vacant. According
to this rule, we find that for more than a hundred years the
Abbots of loiia were all of the tribe and family from wliich
Columba himself was descended.
The peculiarity which, however, appears to have attracted
most attention from the Roman clergy, when the two Churches
came in contact in the seventh century, was the time at which the
Scottish clergy celebrated the festival of Easter, and their form of
tonsure, and these M'ere for long subjects of contention. The
difference in the mode of calculating Easter is easily accounted
for, as the Scottish Church adhered to the method which was
common to the whole Western Church, previous to 457, when all
connection between Britain and Ireland and the Continent ceased;
and during the time of isolation a new method of computation was
adopted by the Roman Church ; but the mode of tonsure is not so
easily accounted for. The Columban Monks tonsured the front of
the head from ear to ear, while in the Roman Church the crown
of the head was tonsured. The former mode of tonsure was
that adopted at oue time by the Eastern Church, and it may point
to some Eastern influence on the Irish Monastic Church at the
time of its development.
Such, then, was the Church established by St C^olumba in
Scotland in its outward aspect and organisation. Of its internal
economy and of the daily life of its members, as exhibited in tlie
parent Monastery of lona, we can, by careful reading, obtain
ii tolerably clear jjicture from Adamiiaii's life of the founder,
written by an Abbot of lona, about eighty years after St
Columba's death. And, as lona was the parent uionastery, it
was no doubt the pattern and example of the others. The monks
in lona lived together as one family, each having his separate
house or bothy, but taking tlieir meals in common. Tliey lived in
strict obedience to the abbot, they w(>re celebate, they had all
their property in common, and they supported themselves by
their own labour. There are numei'ous notices of them labouring
in the fields, bringing home the corn, milking cows, and
so forth, and they had a mill and a kiln. Their food seems to
have consisted of milk, bread, fisli, the flesh of seals, and beef
and mutton. They had numerous services in tlie church, they
were much gi\-eii to i-eading and repeating the Scriptures, and