would. Columban refused his gifts, and only asked that he might settle in some desert place. The king agreed, and he and his companions took up their abode in the wilderness country of the Vosges mountains, where they found the ruins of an ancient fortification to which the tradition of the day gave the name of Anagrates (Vita, p. 12), the present hamlet of Anegray, in the commune of Faucogney, department Haute-Saone. There they lived very hardly, sometimes having nothing to eat save grass and the bark of trees. About three leagues distant was the abbey of Salix or Le Saucy, and the cellarer Marculf, who was sent by his abbot to carry food to the strangers, spoke so much of Columban's holiness that many disciples joined him and much people resorted to him. Columban, however, loved solitude. He often withdrew himself from his little society, and only taking one youth as his companion would abide for a time in some lonely place. He had a full share of the tenderness of character and the love of all living things conspicuous in St. Columba, St. Patrick, and, indeed, in the Celtic saints generally. Birds, it is said, would light on his shoulder that he might caress them, and as he wandered in the forest squirrels would run down from the trees and nestle in his. cowl. Like other Celtic saints, too, he was eager, dauntless, and passionate.
When the number of monks became so great that they could not all live together in the ruins at Anegray, Columban determined to build a monastery in the immediate neighbourhood, and chose the site of the once famous baths of Luxovium or Luxeuil, about eight miles off. The ruins of the Gallo-Roman town lay on the borders between Austrasia and Burgundy, at the foot of the Vosges mountains, in a district that had long lain deserted, and was thickly covered with pine forests and brushwood. When, probably in 590, Columban obtained a grant of Luxeuil from the king, he found the images of pagan gods standing among the ruins of the ancient town. Leaving a certain number of monks at Anegray, he built a monastery for the rest here. The sons of many Prankish nobles entered his new house, and that too soon became full to overflowing. He accordingly built another monastery at Fontaine. He kept the headship of these houses himself, and was often at one or the other of them. At the same time he spent many days in solitary retirement, and he therefore appointed provosts who were to govern the monks in each convent under his direction. It was for these congregations that he drew up his rule. Obedience ' even unto death ' was the basis of his system. Less precise than the rule of St. Benedict, Columban's rule enjoined severe labour as a means of gaining self-control, without laying down any particular regulations. Self-denial was to be universally practised, but was to stop short of any privation that might hinder devotion. Vast as the power of the abbots was as regards the duty of obedience, they were not allowed to inflict punishments at their own discretion, for a minute penal code is appended to the rule prescribing the exact penalties for various offences. Corporal punishment is generally ordered, and the number of stripes to be administered is laid down in each case. Something of the unpractical spirit of Celtic monasticism appears in the sentence that the purity of the monk was to be judged by his thoughts as well as by his actions. Columban's rule was followed in Gaul before the rule of Benedict, and was formally approved by the council of Macon in 627. It is printed in the 'Collectanea Sacra' of Patrick Fleming, an Irish monk, and in 'Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum,' xii. 2 (see also Laningan, ii. 269, and Neander, Ecclesiastical History, v. 37-44). The number of Columban's monks increased rapidly, and it is said, though on no very good authority, that he instituted the ' Laus perennis ' in his convents, a system by which each monk in turn took his share in the divine service, so that the voice of praise rose continually from the congregation. Columban adhered to the Celtic usages as regards the date of Easter, the shape of the tonsure, and other matters (Bædæ, Hist. Heel. ii. 4). The Frankish bishops, who seem to have looked on his growing influence with some jealousy, urged him to conform to the Roman practice. He wrote letters to Gregory the Great on the subject of the difference of ritual. Three of these letters never reached the pope ; Satan, he says, hindered their delivery. One is preserved: it is respectful, though at the same time the language is bold and free (Fleming, Collect. 157, ep. v.) The bishops in 602 held a council to judge him. Instead of appearing before this council Columban sent the bishops a letter written in a tone of dignified authority, in which he bids them examine the question with meekness ; he reminds them that he was not the author of these differences, for he and his companions followed the practices of their forefathers, and prays that he may be allowed to remain in the woods where he had dwelt for the last twelve years, and so be near the bodies of the seventeen of his brethren who had passed away (ib. 113, ep. ii.) At a later date he also wrote to Pope Boniface (the third Boniface 606-607, the fourth 607-615)
