THE CULDEES.
46
Towards the
object, indeed, of the present inquiry, the learned
speculations of
Mr Hope
no nearer, yet having been accepted as historical facts by nearly
all writers on Freemasonry, the above extract from the work of his latest and most brilliant
of what has Iccn believed by Masonic enthusiasts, and
disciple, will strengthen our Icnowledge
and
his followers will bring us
judgment in estimating the proper value
thereby, perhaps, fortify our
may
down
evidence that has come
of the actual
to us.
"
very same country, conformably
and education of the inhabitants," so in the widely diversified regions over
which the system of Colleges was extended by imperial Eome, the usages, the requirements,
be evident, that as
It will
by degrees customs
alter in the
^
to the quality
and the purposes of these institutions, must have gradually varied from those of their original
types, and have assumed features dictated by the circumstances of each locality, and the
exigencies of
If,
its
external relations.
indeed, any direct continuation of the Colleges can be shown,
it
must be through the
guilds or fraternities of Britain, or of Southern France.
Those of our own country have already received
all
the examination which the limits of
and the cognate associations of Gaul, to be hereafter discussed,^ I may
are deemed by many authorities to have preserved the only unbroken
this disquisition permit,
here briefly state,
succession of the Collegiate system throughout the Middle Ages down to our own times.
In
the history of Southern France, if at all in continental Europe, this continuation must be
looked
and
or
for.^
at the
There the
Eevolution
Eoman law remained
it
consolidated
its
in force throughout all vicissitudes of government,
authority by superseding the Feudal law of the North,
Pays Coufumier.
IV.
A
THE CULDEES.
learned writer has declared that "
if ever subjects plain and
easjj in themselves have
been distorted, misrepresented, and corrupted through ignorance and religious prejudice, the
*
[Culdee] question merits a distinguished place among them."
Yet, although the simplicity of
the inquiry in
its
original bearings,
theory, professional prejudice,
and
when unweighted with
"
the obstructions of ingenious
ecclesiastical predilections," has also
been deposed to by the
who have
Irish antiquaries,^ the labours of over fifty writers
highest living authority among
taken up the subject, including those of Dr Pieeves himself, attest by their
divergence the substantial difficulties of the investigation.
many
points of
For the purposes of this sketch it will be convenient to at once define the persons to
the appellation of Culdees wiU. be applied.
The use
'
of the
word by the medieval writers does not authorise us
M. Misson, Travels over England (Trans, by
to
whom
confine
its
=
Ozell, 1719), p. 66.
Chaps, iv. and v., post.
Schauberg, Vergleichendea Handbuch der Symbolik der Freimaurerei, 1863, vol. iii., pp. 223, 266. Heineccius
says, however,—" If the Germans adopted in any form the ancient Roman institutions, it must be looked for in the
'
J.
establishment of their colleges and corporate bodies of
*
=
1864).
Dr J. Lanigan,
Dr W. Reeves,
workmen" (De
Collegiis, etc., chap,
ii.,
§ 1).
Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, 1822, vol. iv., p. 295.
of
Armagh, author
of
"The
Culdees of the British Islands as they appear in History" (Dublin,