short of a revolution had taken place. The preparation and training of workers—the consecration of missionary bishops and abbots—the solemn sending forth of labourers with the blessing of the community—the meetings at which reports of success and failure were discussed—all these, which formed the life and soul of the community, were at an end.
In Ireland, the Easter disputes divided the Church into two parties. Bede tells us of Adamnan, who had been abbot of Iona, and whose life of Saint Columba is one of our contemporary sources of information about this period. In the year 683 the Saxons made a descent upon Ireland, devastated the great plains of Meath, and returned to England bearing with them a multitude of captives and great spoil. The year following, Adamnan went into Saxonland to plead the cause of the prisoners, and conducted their case with so much skill that he obtained the release of those who had been carried away, and a 'full restoration of everything he asked.' During his stay amongst the English, he learnt much about the 'canonical rites of the Church,' which he seems never to have known before, and after a time 'changed his mind, and readily preferred those things which he had seen and heard in the English Church to the customs which he and his people had hitherto followed.'[1] Returning to Iona, he thought he could easily persuade his own people to follow his example. In this he was mistaken. So much did they resent his unfaithfulness to their traditional usages, that he soon found his position untenable, and he was forced to resign the abbacy and depart from them into Ireland. Here he met with greater success, and induced nearly the whole country, with the
- ↑ Bede, Eccl. Hist., v. 15.
