16 Appeal to the Roman See
The genuineness of the canon prescribing reference to the Roman see has been sufficiently indicated in the text (chap. viii. § 4); but some observations may be added here by way of illustration. It is clear that the attitude of the Irish Church to the see of Rome in the sixth century has a very distinct value as evidence from which inferences may be made in regard to its relation to Rome in the fifth century. And for the feelings of Irish ecclesiastics towards the Roman see in the sixth century, we can have no better evidence than the letters of St. Columbanus, who was born and educated in Ireland. For on the one hand Columbanus identifies his own opinions with those of the Irish, and speaks as if he were writing in Ireland; while, on the other, he admonishes the bishops of Rome with such boldness and plainness that he cannot be accused of “Romanising” tendencies. We are therefore justified in taking the spirit which he displays towards the Cathedra Petri as indicative of the spirit of the Irish Church.
In the three letters which are addressed to bishops of Rome (Epp. 1, 3, 5) there is the fullest recognition of the Pope’s auctoritas in the Western Church, and it is just this recognition which makes Columban lay such solemn weight on his own admonitions—an error (peruersitas, p. 175₄) committed by the Pope being one of the most serious disasters that could befall the Church. It is clear that Ireland is in no wise excluded from the general auctoritas of the “Apostolic Fathers” (cp. pp. 164₃₁, 165₂₃), for Pope Boniface is addressed as omnium totius Europae Ecclesiarum capiti (Ep. 5, p. 170₁₀). In this letter Columbanus writes: nos enim devincti sumus cathedrae sancti Petri (174₂₅), and vos (the Popes) prope caelestes estis et Roma orbis terrarum caput est ecclesiarum, salva loci dominicae resurrectionis singulari praerogativa. The reservation (showing that the writer is expressing his conviction and not merely using rhetorical phrases of politeness) renders this evidence all the more telling; and the same may be said of the reservation which he makes as to the claim of the Popes as successors of the keeper of the keys of heaven (175₈₋₁₉). The attitude of Columban is briefly expressed in the wish: Rex regum, tu Petrum, te tota sequatur ecclesia (177₁₅).416
The unity of the Catholic Church is an axiom with Columbanus, and there is not the smallest reason to doubt that this idea was inculcated in Ireland. Unius enim sumus corporis commembra, sive Galli sive Britanni sive Iberi sive quaeque gentes (164). It is not without significance that in the story of the baptism of the daughters of King Loigaire, preserved by Tírechán, one of the five rudiments of Christianity in which the converts are required to express their belief is the unitas aecclessiae (316₂, Rolls ed.).
The point is that its own solidarity with the rest of Christendom, and consequent respect for the Bishop of Rome as the head of Christendom, were axioms of theory, however little they were acted on in the sixth century, in the Irish Church. And such must have been the teaching of Patrick himself. Patrick, spiritually reared in the Gallic Church, must (without direct testimony to the contrary) be presumed to have shared in the attitude of Gallic churchmen to the Roman see. It was not, indeed, the attitude of unquestioning obedience and submission of later ages. What it was has been fully explained in chap. iii. ad fin. and in chap. viii. § 4.
Reference must be made to another passage in Columbanus, which might be thought to prove something more (Ep. 5, p. 171).
Nos enim sanctorum Petri et Pauli et omnium discipulorum divinum canonem spiritu sancto scribentium discipuli sumus, toti Iberi, ultimi habitatores mundi, nihil extra evangelicam et apostolicam doctrinam recipientes: nullus hereticus, nullus iudaeus, nullus scismaticus fuit; sed fides catholica, sicut a vobis primum, sanctorum videlicet apostolorum successoribus, tradita est, inconcussa tenetur.
In this assertion of the orthodoxy of Ireland, the words which I have italicised might be taken to imply that Ireland received the Catholic faith directly from the Popes. This would be a misinterpretation. The words can only refer generally to the transmission and maintenance of orthodox doctrine at Rome.417
The text of the canon of appeal (Hibernensis, 20, 5, b) is as follows:—
Si quae difficiles418 questiones in hac insula oriantur, ad sedem apostolicam referantur.
It is referred to in the Liber Angueli (356₁₁), where the claim of Armagh to decide a causa ualde difficilis is laid down; but if Armagh does not succeed in settling the question, then ad sedem apostolicam decreuimus esse mittendam [sc. causam]. It is further stated:
hii sunt qui de hoc decreuerunt id est Auxilius Patricius Secundinus Benignus.
If these names are selected from the signatories of a synod at which the canon was passed, the presence of Secundinus, who died 447-8 (see App. B, note p. 292), shows that the synod must have been held before that year. Benignus would have been still a presbyter.419