Western Civilization

life. Irish monasteries produced extraordinary illumi-

nated manuscripts illustrated with abstract geometric

patterns.

Their emphasis on asceticism led many Irish monks

to go into voluntary exile. This “exile for the love of

God” was not into isolation, however, but into mission-

ary activity. Irish monks became fervid missionaries.

Saint Columba (521–597) left Ireland in 565 as a

“pilgrim for Christ” and founded an influential monas-

tic community off the coast of Scotland on the island

of Iona. From there Irish missionaries went to north-

ern England to begin the process of converting the

Angles and Saxons. Other Irish monks traveled to the

European continent. New monasteries founded by

the Irish became centers of learning wherever they

were located.

AtthesametimetheIrishmonkswerebusybring-

ing their version of Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons

of Britain, Pope Gregory the Great had set into

motion an effort to convert England to Roman Chris-

tianity. His most important agent was Augustine, a

monk from Rome, who arrived in England in 597.

EnglandatthattimehadanumberofGermanicking-

doms. Augustine went first to Kent, where he con-

verted King Ethelbert; most of the king’s subjects

then followed suit. Pope Gregory’s conversion techni-

ques emphasized persuasion rather than force, and as

seen in this excerpt from one of his letters, he was

Irish Monasticism and the Penitential

Irish monasticism became well known for its ascetic

practices. Much emphasis was placed on careful

examination of conscience to determine if one had

committed a sin against God. To facilitate this

examination, penitentials were developed that listed

possible sins with appropriate penances. Penance

usually meant fasting—consuming nothing but bread

and water—for a certain number of days each week.

Although these penitentials were eventually used

throughout Christendom, they were especially

important in Irish Christianity. This excerpt from the

Penitential of Cummean, an Irish abbot, was written

about 650 and demonstrates a distinctive feature

of the penitentials, an acute preoccupation with

sexual sins.

The Penitential of Cummean

A bishop who commits fornication shall be degraded

and shall do penance for twelve years.

A presbyter or a deacon who commits natural

fornication, having previously taken the vow of a

monk, shall do penance for seven years. He shall ask

pardon every hour; he shall perform a special fast

during every week except in the days between Easter

and Pentecost.

He who defiles his mother shall do penance for

three years, with perpetual pilgrimage.

So shall those who commit sodomy do penance

every seven years....

He who is willingly polluted during sleep shall arise

and sing nine psalms in order, kneeling. On the

following day, he shall live on bread and water.

A cleric who commits fornication once shall do

penance for one year on bread and water; if he begets a

son he shall do penance for seven years as an exile; so

also a virgin.

He who loves any woman, but is unaware of any evil

beyond a few conversations, shall do penance for forty

days.

He who is in a state of matrimony ought to be

continent during the three forty-day periods and on

Saturday and on Sunday, night and day, and in the two

appointed week days [Wednesday and Friday], and

after conception, and during the entire menstrual

period.

After a birth he shall abstain, if it is a son, for

thirty-three [days]; if a daughter, for sixty-six

[days]....

Children who imitate acts of fornication, twenty

days; if frequently, forty.

But boys of twenty years who practice masturbation

together and confess [shall do penance] twenty or forty

days before they take communion.

Q What does the Penitential of Cummean reveal about

the nature of Irish monasticism? What do you think

was the theory of human sexuality held by early Irish

Christianity?

Source: FromMedieval Handbooks of Penance, edited by John T. McNeill and Helena M. Garner. Copyrightª1990 by Columbia University Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Development of the Christian Church 159

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