authority of Tighernach and the 'Chronicon Scotorum' is generally preferred (602 A.D.); the Annals of Inisfallen give 597 A.D. All the authorities admit that he ruled Bangor for fifty years (Annals of Tighernach, Inisfallen, and the Four Masters; Chron. Scot.)
It is said that at one period there was a discord between Columba and Comgall, which led to the battle Cul-Raithain (Coleraine or Culdrenny); but it has been suggested that this was a tribal rather than a personal dispute (Dict. of Chr. Biog. i. 608-9). Corngall's other foundations are said to have been Cambas on the Ban (Adamnan), Rathwulfig (Camerarius, ap. Forbes, 12 May), Saynkill (Ussher, pp. 494-5), and a church in Hethar Tiree (Reeves, Adamnan, p. 226 note). To these Bishop Forbes adds Drumcongal or Dercongal (i.e. Holywood in Galloway) from the Breviary of Aberdeen and Durris in Kincardine. Jocelin has preserved the tradition that Luan, one of his disciples, founded one hundred monasteries, and the monks under Comgall's government are said to have been numbered by thousands (Vit. Pat. c. 11; Vit. Comg.) Comgall was one of the greatest fathers of Irish monasticism. His was one of the 'eight great orders of Erin, according to the life of St. Ciaran' the carpenter; and Ussher 'mentions four rules written in the most ancient Irish, and in our days almost unintelligible,' i.e. those of 'Columkille, Comghal, Mochuda, and Ailbe' (Forbes, pp. 308-310). A so-called 'rule of Comgall' is still extant. It is written in Irish, but, though of great age, was probably not composed by this saint. It consists of thirty-six quatrains (Ulster Journal of Archæology, i. 171). It was doubtless a modification of this rule that St. Columbanus and St. Gall took over with them to Gaul and Italy, and which became the foundation of the discipline at Luxeuil, Bobbio, and St. Gall. An ancient antiphonary preserved at Milan contains an alphabetical hymn in honour of this saint (Dict. of Chr. Biog.); Columbanus has quoted a few lines from his old master in his second instruction (Ulst. Journ. i. 171). In 822 Bangor was plundered by the Danes, and the relics of Comgall scattered in accordance with the saint's poetical prophecy (Reeves, Eccles. Antiq. 278). Comgall is sometimes known by the Latin name of Faustus; but another translation makes it equivalent to 'pulchrum pignus ' (Notker, Martyr. 5 Id. June; Ussher, p. 526).
[MS. Lives of St. Comgall are in the Bodleian MS. Ea-wlinson, B 505 (early 15th cent.), 485, ib. in the British Museum, MS. Barley 6576 (15th cent.); in the Liber Kilkenniensis (Dublin, 13th cent.) Two lives of this saint are published in Bollandus, Acta Sanctorum (A.SS.), 10 May, 579-88; Annals of Tighernach, Inisfallen, the Four Masters, and of Ulster in vols. ii. iii. and iv. of O'Conor's Scriptores Rerum Hibernicarum; Lanigan's Ecclesiast. Hist. of Ireland, ii. 20, 61, iv. 568; Chronicon Scotorum (ed. Hennessy in Rolls Series); Bollandi Acta Sanctorum (A.SS.); Acta Sanctorum Ord. Benedict. (A.SS.O.B.), ii.; Notker's Martyrology, ap. Migne's Cursus Patrologiæ, cxxxi. 1103; Oengus the Culdee (ed. Whitley Stokes); Academy, xxviii. 412-13; Haddan and Stubbs's Councils; Literature of Celtic Church (ed. Warren); Missale Drummonde (ed. Warren), ap. Forbes's Kalendar of Scottish Saints; Bernard, ap. Migne; Ussher's Antiquitates Ecclesiæ Brit.; Hardy's Catalogue of MSS.; Adamnan (ed. Reeves).]
COMIN, COMINES, or CUMIN, ROBERT DE, Earl of Northumberland (d. 1069), was apparently a native of Flanders to judge from his name. He was one of the barons who followed William I in his invasion of England, and so commended himself to the king by his military skill that he was chosen at the end of 1068 for the difficult task of reducing the north of England to obedience. William I conferred on him the earldom of Northumberland, vacant by the flight of Gospatric; and in January 1069 Comin set out from Gloucester with forces which are variously estimated at five hundred, seven hundred, and nine hundred men. The winter was severe, and Comin advanced unopposed to the city of Durham. The bishop of Durham, Ethelwin, advanced to meet him, and warned him of the ill-will of the men of the bishopric; he advised him not to enter the city. Comin disregarded his warning, and Ethel win did all he could to protect him from the results of his rashness by lodging him and his chief knights in his own house next to the cathedral. The Normans treated Durham as a captured town, and the news of their doings spread into Northumberland. The men of the Tyne rose, forced the gates of Durham in the night, and massacred the Norman soldiers. Comin vainly took refuge in the bishop's house; it was set on fire, and he was slaughtered. The failure of this expedition was William I's first experience of the intractability of the northern folk, and was one of the causes of his severity in the 'harrying of the north.' Comin was the founder of the family of Comyn, many of whom played an important part in the history of Scotland [see Comyn.]
[Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Eccl. 512 c; Simeon of Durham, Historia Regum, s. a. 1069, and Hist. Eccl. Dunelmensis, iii. 15; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, s. a. 1068; Freeman's Norman Conquest, iv. 234-40.]
