50 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
also followed the Roman rite) to send him architects to build a church
in the style of the Romans.
Culdeen influence is much more noteworthy in ornamental art,
mainly in sculpture, many examples of which have survived into the
present. This art greatly contributed to the transmission of ancestral
Celtic symbolism to Romanesque art, where its presence is quite visible.
Romanesque art brings us up to the eleventh century. But with
respect to earlier centuries, there is little remaining architecture by
which we can judge the Culdeen influence. Nevertheless, it must be
acknowledged that the Culdees had acquired some renown in this field,
as demonstrated by the expressions used to characterize their works or
those that followed their style: more Scotto, or "according to the
Scottish Rite"; opus Scotturum, or "the work of the Scots"; and even
juxta morem Hibernioe nationis, or "according to the custom of the
Irish nation."
Most important, these phrases and the other remnants we have
looked at in this chapter attest to the survival of organized building
associations with traditional roots through the centuries of barbarian
dominance.