Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/315

CELTIC LITERATURE 303 or Scotic kingdom, the paramount king of Ireland, and many sub-reguli, and prominent above all St Columcille. According to this organization there were three grades or orders, the Gradh Ecna, the Gradh Fene, and the Gradh Fili. Ecna, wisdom, meant general as distinguished from special professional knowledge. A graduate of Ecna was called a Sai, sage, but there appear to have been several degrees of the title, the highest of which was the Ollamh Sai, sometimes called also the Rosai, or very sage, or Sai leitre, lettered sage. Ollamh (pron. Ollave}, we may remark, was the title of the highest degree in any profession. An Ollamh Sai had the rank and was entitled to the retinue of a Rig Tuatha, or tribe king. All questions between the different tribes, the interpretation of the laws, the succession to chieftainships, and similar questions were decided by them. They were the genealogists or historians of the chiefs or kings. In pagan times the Gradh Ecna, which was only a branch of the order, call it which we will, of Druids or pacts, was probably the highest, judging by the dignity and privilege of its Ollamh, and consequently the one whose members were specially called Druids. If this view be correct, it was to this branch that the functions of judge originally belonged. When the right of judgment passed from the Druids into the hinds of the Rig, or chief, the latter no doubt acted as judge himself, or appointed some one to fill his place. This judge was called a Breitheim. or as he is called from the pronunciation of the modern form of the word, a Brehon, and was always in early times a So>i, for Fenechas, or law, formed part of the knowledge comprised under the term Ecna, a fact which strongly supports the view above expressed, that the Sai was the successor of the Druid. In time the practice of law grew into a distinct profession, and every Breitheam of the higher class, that is every one who was a Sai, kept a kind of law school. Thus arose the Gra>lh Fene, or lawyers. One of the causes which no doubt helped to separate the study of Fenechas, or law, from the general study of Ecna, or wisdom, was the rise of schools in connection with religious establishments. The class of persons whom we have above designated as poets were called File in Irish, and their art Filidecht. The latter is usually translated poetry, but it was rather vaticination in wtrch they used verse. The Fili truly represents the Ouuras, or vates, who formed one of the orders of Druids, mentioned by Strabo. Some of the f;>rms of incantation practised by the Fili are described in Irish manuscripts, and, as we have stated above, are attri buted to the Druid as well as to the Fili. Those which in volved pagan rites, and which were consequently forbidden by St Patrick, fell into desuetude with the name Druid ; but simple incantations by rhymes continued to be practised in Christian times. One of these, the Glam Dichinn, or an incantation of satirical verses accompanied by certain ceremonies, which was believed to be capable of rais ing blisters on the face, was much used, and supplies, perhaps, one reason of the great sensitiveness of Celts to satire. The Fili appears to have been distinguished in early times by some kind of tonsure, the exact nature of which we do not understand. Perhaps it was the same as that afterwards used by the Christian priests, which was one of the causes of difference between the early Irish Church and the Roman Church. It is at all events worthy of remark that the Irish priests were reproached with having the tonsure of Simon Magus, who in those times was the representative of all magicians or others who practised necromancy or vaticination. There were several degrees of the order of Fili, the highest being the Ollamh Fili, as we have already pointed out. A Fili of this rank was entitled to keep, that is, to have supported for him, a grey hound, a beagle, four stallions, two mares, and their foals the maintenance of the horses, being we are told, at the expense of the church. The king fostered the Ollamh s sons as if they were his own; and the queen was bound to give dowries to his daughters. In return for all these emoluments and privileges the Fili, or poet, was bound to furnish a panegyric of the prince annually. In fact the chief function of the Fili when he became a mere poet was to eulogize the chief, and the chief s family and ancestors. The designation, given to the Gaulish bards, of parasites who* attended the Gaulish warriors on military expeditions to celebrate their praise, by Posidonius the Rhodian Stoic, who visited Gaul about 100 B.C., applies with equal truth to the Irish Fili. The flattery was not given without hope of reward, however. In the glossary attributed to Cormac, who was at the same time king and bishop at Cashel in the 9th century, which is at least as old as the 10th century, we are told that the reason why the second degree of Fili was called an Anruth was because of " the rich stream (Srutti) of beautiful praise which flows from him, and the stream of treasures which flows to him in return." This was exactly the sentiment of the Gaulish bard who in eulogizing the magnificence of Bituitus the A.vernian chief said, " From the track of his chariot- wheels sprang gold and blessings to mortals." An Ollamh, or as we might call him a doctor, in Filidecht was entitled to have a certain number of scholars who formed his retinue when he went abroad. One of his privileges was to make a circuit at certain times, the extent of which depended upon his rank. When, for instance, an Ollamh Fili became chief poet, and was invested with the Tugen, or cloak trimmed with white feathers, the symbol of his office, he might make a circuit of Ireland. During his circuit the Ollamh Fili was entitled to maintenance and protection for a certain time, not only for himself but for his legal retinue, and their horses and dogs also. They could not, however, remain beyond the fixed legal time without special invitation. A Fili, or indeed any of the recognized learned professions, could not claim hospitality as a right from any one below a certain rank, which was measured by his own. The bards who recited poems and stories formed at first a distinct branch from the Fili. According as the true Filidecht fell into desuetude, and the Fili became simply a poet, the two orders practically coalesced, and the names Fili and bard became synonymous. There were several degrees of bards, according to the number of poems and stories which the graduate should be able to recite. In pagan times, and during the Middle Ages, the Irish bards, like the Gaulish ones, accompanied their recitation of poems on a stringed instrument called a Crut, believed to have been a harp. The bard was therefore to the Fili, cr poet, what the Jogler was to the Troubadour, and the Jongleur to the Trouvere. The Cruitire, or harper, who likewise played upon a kind of Rote called a Timpan, and who belonged to the privileged classes, while the players on other instruments did not, was probably the representative of the true bard. One of the most interesting points in the history of Celtic The learned literature is the relation of the transformed Druidic hierarchy classes and just described to the Christian church. Independent of its *|| e .... . , , , , . L . Church of own intrinsic interest some knowledge of this is necessary j rt .j anc ) t in order to understand the system of schools in Ireland in the early Middle Ages, and the position which the native literature occupied in them. Before stating what we have to say on the latter subjects we must therefore briefly describe the character of the early Irish Church. The presence of British bishops at several councils, and the production of so distinguished a heresiarch as Pelagius, prove that there must have been an organized church in Britain in the 4th century. At that period there were

many populous towns there, and much of the culture of