References and Further Reading
Edwards, Nancy. The Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland.
London: Batsford, 1990.
Harbison, Peter. Pilgrimage in Ireland. London: Barrie & Jen-
kins,1991.
———.The Golden Age of Irish Art: The Medieval Achieve-
ment 600–1200. London: Thames and Hudson, 1999.
Henry, Francoise. Irish Art in the Early Christian Period to A.D.
800. London: Methuen, 1965.
———.Irish Art during the Viking Invasions 800
− 1020 A.D.
London: Methuen, 1967.
.Irish Art in the Romanesque Period 1020
− 1200.
London: Methuen, 1970.
Hourihane, Colum, ed. From Ireland Coming: Irish Art from
the Early Christian to the Late Gothic Period and its Euro-
pean Context. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Neuman de Vegvar, C. “Romanitas and Realpolitik in Cogito-
sus’s Description of the Church of St. Brigit, Kildare.” In
The Cross Goes North, edited by Martin Carver. York: The
Boydell Press, 2002.
Ryan, Michael. Studies in Medieval Irish Metalwork. London:
Pindar Press, 2000.
Ryan, Michael, ed. Treasures of Ireland. Dublin: Royal Irish
Academy, 1983.
Youngs, S., ed. The Work of Angels: Masterpieces of Celtic Met-
alwork 6th-9th Centuries A.D.London: British Museum, 1989.
See alsoArmagh, Book of; Durrow, Book of; Early
Christian Sites; High Crosses; Iconography;
Inscriptions; Jewelery and Personal Ornament;
Kells, Book of; Manuscript Illumination;
Metalwork; Reliquaries; Scuplture
ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION
The Early Middle Ages
Christianity had reached Ireland by the beginning of
the fifth century. We may infer from linguistic evidence
that the missionaries of the new faith came mainly
from the Romano-British Church, rather than Gaul (a
notable quantity of Irish loanwords derive from a British
dialect of Latin). By 431, the number of Christians
in Ireland warranted episcopal oversight, and Pope
Celestine I commissioned a deacon named Palladius
to be first bishop “to the Irish believing in Christ.” The
other (and by the seventh century) more famous fifth-
century apostle of the Irish, Patrick, came from Britain;
he is a less shadowy figure than Palladius, having left
us some of his own writings. Although he does not
provide a very clear picture of the organization of the
Irish Church, Patrick does tell us that, as an Irish
bishop, he was responsible to a synod of British bishops.
Therefore Ireland had no metropolitan bishop.
In the Gaul of Palladius’s time or the Britain of
Patrick’s, a bishop presided over a ciuitas(or city),
and a metropolitan bishop over a province; in Ireland,
however, there were no such cities or provinces.
Because Ireland had not been part of the Empire, it
lacked the imperial administrative framework upon
which ecclesiastical organization in the Latin West was
based. However, evidence for the earliest phase of
ecclesiastical development suggests that the principles
by which the Church was organized in the imperial
provinces were nevertheless adapted to Ireland’s pecu-
liar circumstances. Our most important source for the
period after the conversion is a collection of early Irish
canons called theSynod of the Bishops (Synodus epis-
coporum) that may date from the late fifth century.
This text shows a bishop had authority over a plebsor
parochia, that the clergy were subject to him, and that
no one could perform any function within the plebs
without his permission. The word plebshere represents
the Irish túath(or small kingdom); the Latin and Irish
words both mean “people.” This, for ecclesiastical pur-
poses, was the counterpart to the ciuitasin the Empire;
thetúathwas, therefore, the earliest and fundamental
unit of episcopal government in Ireland, once the
Church had become widely established.
In the middle of the sixth century, many of the great
ecclesiastical centers of the Irish Church were founded:
Bangor, Clonard, Clonmacnoise, and Iona are among
the most famous. These principal houses had daughter
foundations that remained attached to the mother church
with varying degrees of closeness. The practice in Iona,
and probably the other large communities, was for the
abbot to appoint praepositi(or priors) to supervise the
daughter houses; the abbot would also make visitations
to the subordinate houses. In the first half of the seventh
century, a papal letter on the paschal question shows
that bishops were now at least sharing power with the
heads of these greater foundations.
The principal ecclesiastical settlements in early
medieval Ireland were known as ciuitatesand were
composed of more than monks. They included both
those whose vocation was monastic prayer and those
on behalf of whom the monks proper offered their
prayers; a professional military element might also be
included within the wider community. The largest of
theciuitatesbegan to take on the appearance of urban
centers, with dense populations, a variety of crafts, and
a delimited boundary with special legal status. Thus,
places such as Armagh, Clonmacnoise, Cork, and Kil-
dare became towns under the jurisdiction of the head
of the church, the erenagh/princeps, who was often not
necessarily in even minor orders.
The concept of the erenagh (Old Irish airchinnech,
meaning chief or head), who was the governor of tem-
poralities, is an extraordinary feature of the Irish
Church; we find him described either explicitly as
erenagh/princeps, or sometimes as abbot, but perform-
ing the same function as the erenagh/princeps. The
Irish ecclesiastical princepsis attested in the Synod ofECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION