The Life of St. Mochuda of Lismore | Page 7

relations of the people to the Church and its ministers are in many
respects not at all easy to understand. Oblations, for instance, of
themselves and their territory, &c., by chieftains are frequent. Oblations
of monasteries are made in a similar way. Probably this signifies no
more than that the chief region or monastery put itself under the saint's
jurisdiction or rule or both. That there were other churches too than the
purely monastic appears from offerings to Mochuda of already existing
churches, v.g. from the Clanna Ruadhan in Decies, &c.
Lismore, the most famous of Mochuda's foundations, became within a
century of the saint's death, one of the great monastic schools of Erin,
attracting to his halls, or rather to its boothies, students from all Ireland
and even--so it is claimed--from lands beyond the seas. King Alfrid
[Aldfrith] of Northumbria, for instance, is said to have partaken of
Lismore's hospitality, and certainly Cormac of Cashel, Malachy and
Celsus of Armagh and many others of the most distinguished of the
Scots partook thereof. The roll of Lismore's calendared saints would
require, did the matter fall within our immediate province, more than
one page to itself. Some interesting reference to Mochuda and his holy
city occur in the Life of one of his disciples, St. Colman Maic Luachain,
edited for the R.I.A. by Professor Kuno Meyer.
There are many indications in the present Life that, at one period, and
in the time of Carthach, the western boundary of Decies extended far
beyond the line at present recognised. Similar indications are furnished
by the martyrologies, &c.; for instance, the martyrology of Donegal
under November 28th records of "the three sons of Bochra" that "they
are of Archadh Raithin in Ui Mic Caille in Deisi Mumhan" and Ibid, p.
xxxvii, it is stated "i ccondae Corcaige ataid na Desi Muman." Not only
Imokilly but all Co. Cork, east of Queenstown [Cobh] and north to the
Blackwater, seems to have acknowledged Mochuda's jurisdiction. At
Rathbreasail accordingly (teste Keating, on the authority of the Book of
Cloneneigh) the Diocese of Lismore is made to extend to

Cork,--probably over the present baronies of Imokilly, Kinatallon, and
Barrymore. That part, at least, of Condons and Clangibbon was
likewise included is inferrible from the fact that, as late as the sixteenth
century visitations, Kilworth, founded by Colman Maic Luachain,
ranked as a parish in the diocese of Lismore. Further evidence pointing
in the same direction is furnished by Clondulane, &c., represented in
the present Life as within Carthach's jurisdiction.
The Rule of St. Carthach is one of the few ancient Irish so-called
monastic Rules surviving. It is in reality less a "rule," as the latter is
now understood, than a series of Christian and religious counsels drawn
up by a spiritual master for his disciples. It must not be understood
from this that each religious house did not have it formal regulations.
The latter however seem to have depended largely upon the abbot's
spirit, will or discretion. The existing "Rules" abound in allusions to
forgotten practices and customs and, to add to their obscurity, their
language is very difficult--sometimes, like the language of the Brehon
Laws, unintelligible. The rule ascribed to Mochuda is certainly a
document of great antiquity and may well have emanated from the
seventh century and from the author whose name it bears. The tradition
of Lismore and indeed of the Irish Church is constant in attributing it to
him. Copies of the Rule are found in numerous MSS. but many of them
are worthless owing to the incompetence of the scribes to whom the
difficult Irish of the text was unintelligible. The text in the Leabhar
Breac has been made the basis of his edition of the Rule by Mac
Eaglaise, a writer in the 'Irish Ecclesiastical Record' (1910). Mac
Eaglaise's edition, though it is not all that could be desired, is far the
most satisfactory which has yet appeared. Previous editions of the Rule
or part of it comprise one by Dr. Reeves in his tract on the Culdees, one
by Kuno Meyer in the 'Gaelic Journal' (Vol. V.) and another in 'Archiv
fuer C.L.' (3 Bund. 1905), and another again in 'Eriu' (Vol. 2, p. 172),
besides a free translation of the whole rule by O'Curry in the 'I. R.
Record' for 1864. The text of the 'Record' edition of 1910 is from
Leabhar Breac collated with other MSS. The order in the various copies
is not the same and some copies contain material which is wanting in
others. The "Rule" commences with the Ten Commandments, then it
enumerates the obligations respectively of bishops, abbots, priests,
monks, and culdees [anchorites]. Finally there is a section on the order

of meals and on the refectory and another on the obligations of a king.
The following