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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION in EARLY INSULAR SCHOOLS Wesley M SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION IN EARLY INSULAR SCHOOLS Wesley M. Stevens University of Winnipeg The science to be discussed in thic paper has to do with calculations und Observations of both earth and skies. The evidence hac not hereto- fore impressed modern philologicts and historians who have searched for literary activities and their foundation in grammatica or who have Scrutinized the Patterns of prayer and psalmc that one finds throughout European monasticism in the development of cantica. Yet the Celtic culture of striking images, fanciful vord-plays, and astonishing holi- ness cannot be discussed very thoroughly without at least acknowledge- ment of a certain problem, like a thorn in the flesh: the date of ~aster.' In Ireland, England, Spain, and Gaul during the entire sfventh century, that problem demanded all availnble resources: resounding argu- mentc ensued; traditions were born, defended, or undermined. Some scholars, like Bede, considered that the question had been resolved by A. D. 664; but later writers, like Abbo of Fleury, knew tliat it had not.' From the fragmentary materials surviving fron arithmetical calculations, geometrical models of heaven and earth, and arguments about solar and lunar cycles it is possible to recognize in computistice not only occasional concerns but also concerted and significant scientific labours in the schools of the Scots of Ireland, Britonc of Wales, Angles of Northumbria, Saxons of Southumbria and Wessex. If there were fanci- ful images they begin in grammatica; if there iiere prayers they were reinforced in cantica; but practical study of natural objects and the reckoning of relationships and motians of things were gathered together in ~omputistica.~For science we look to the coinputus. In the year A. D. 630 by our reckoning, a synod was held in Ireland at Campus Lenis (Magh Lena), and it was decided that beginning uith the Insular Latin Stodies, ed. Xichael Herren, Papers in Mediaeval Studies 1 (Toronto: Pontificial Institute af Mediaeval Studies, 1981) PP. 83-111 next year all should keep Easter with the universal church. It is not nt all certain by what System this was to be achieved: whether it would be a simple table of dates; a sequence of memory Verses; or a cycle of 8 or 19 or 76 or 84 or 95 or 112 years, with the saltus placed in the twelfth or the fourteenth or the sixteenth or the nineteenth year. We know none of this. But we do know that there was serious objec- tion to this decision and that someone brought about division among those who had agreed to celebrate Easter with the rest of the church. This objection seems to have led to a second cynod a year later at Campus Albus (near Slieve klargy, Queen's County). According to the Vita C. Munnu Siue Fintani (d.636), the new ordo Paschae iras defended there by Laisren, abbot of Leighlenne, under whom there were 1500 monks. But the old computus was defended by the holy Fintan, abbot of Tech Munnu (Taghman, Co. Wexford), who kept the assembly waiting for a conciderable time and finally made his entrance just before evening. Then he suggested how ehe Easter controversy could be settled: There are three options, Laisren: Two books could be put in the fire, the old and the new, so that we may see which of them survives the fire; or two monks, one of mine and one of yours, could be closed up in a hut and the hut could be set afire, and we should see which of them comes through the fire unhurt; or we could go to the tomb of a just monk who has died and bring him back to life, and he will tell us by which ordo we should celebrate Easter this ~ear.~ Laisren discretely refused the ordeal in any form on the grounds that Munnu's sanctity was so great that God irould grant whatever he asked. In the face of overwhelming holiness, Laisren's decision was not an act of weakness, for the southern abbots were coming over to the new ordo Paschalis. Within only one century the northerners, British, and even the holy foundation of Columba on the island of Iona had abandoned the older computus "whose author or place or time we do not know," cuius zuctorem locum tempus incertum habcmus (as Cummian said), in favour of an Alexandrian series of Easters, which appeared to be a true reckoning universally observed. Rather than rehearsing the Pascha1 controversies of the seventh century, I Want to discover how it came about that sanctity yielded to science among the Irish and British as well as among the Saxons and Angles. Cummivn will lead us: SCIBNTIFIC INSTRUCTION Dominis sanctis et in Christo venerandis, Segieno abbati Columbae sancti et caeterorum sanctorum successorun, Beccanoque solitario, charo tarne et spiritu fratri cum suis sapientibus; Cunmianus ... (Epistola Cummisn~)15 There are many Segenes, Beccans, and Cummians named in Irish annals and docments containing reports from the seventh century. Thic Segene was abbot of Iona (8. D. 623-652), and this Beccan was presumably a relative of the author of the letter. Beyond this letter our author is scarcely known; this Cumian must have been living in a region from which prominent abbeys would respond to his call for a synod at Mag LEna, a plain near ~urrow.' They came from Emly (Co. Tipperary) where Ailbe had been bishop; Clonmacnois (Co. Offaly), founded by Ciaran; Birr (Co. Offaly), the place af Brendan; Mungret (Co. Limerick) where Nessan was known; Clonfert-Mulloe (Co. Laois) begun by Lugaid, that is, Muloa;7 Cumian reports and comments on the controversy of new and old reckonings in whichLaisrenavoided the ozdeal proposed by that paries dealbatus, by which he presmbly means Fintan (d. A. D. 635/6), successor to Munnu of ~aghmon.' Against the ruler of the monks of Munnu, Cummian quoted St. Paul's responce after the h'gh priest Ananias had comanded hin to be struck across the mouth: "God shall strike you, you white- washed wall ..." (Acts 23.3), for Fintan pretended to observe the tradi- tionc of his elders and created discord from the unity which had been achieved at the previous synod of Mag Lena. "The Lord, I hope, will ctrike him down in whatever way he Sees fit!" added Cumian, after ~aul.~Against the discord of the old holy man, Cummian argues for Christian unity in celebrating the central feast of the year; and thic unity was depicted in ancient terms as well as in tems of contemporary experience. 1. It makea no sense for Britons and Irish to observe an Easter in conflict with the four apostolic sees: Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria;1° 2. It occuis that the whole world (Hebrws, Greeks, Scythians, and Egyptians) observes Easter at the Same time, as found by delegation sent to Rome in 631 whose Irish tables a 11 gave them a date an entire month later than the others. Are they all wicked, Cumian asked the haly SegEne and the wise Beccan, or is it we who are on tlie outer edge of things? Are not the Britons 12 and Irish in these matters but a pimple on the face of the earth? SegEne, like Fintan, iias unmoved by appeals to Christian unity either in apostolic or universal terms. But Cummian was able to present also a series of detailed arguments based upon resources iihich, though lacking an appeal to piety and apostolicity, nevertiielesc served those ends. He had studied the Easter cycles; for a whole year he had withheld judg- ment, so~ghtout the explanations of different cycles, and analyzed what each race thought about the Course of sun and moon. Could he really do this at the outer edge of the whole wide world? Here are the books which he namec: 1. Primum illum quem sanctus Patricius papa noster tulit et facit; in quo luna a XIV. usque in XXI. regulariter, et aequinoctium a XII. kalend. Aprilis obse1vatur.13 This was the "sage of the ecclesiastical civitas of Milan, apparently following an Alexandrian table of the fourth century. Its limits for obseming the Pascha1 moon were luna XIV-XXI, and luna XIV was ehe vernal equinox of XI1 Kal. Aprilis (=21 March) rather than XI Kal. Aprilis (=22 March) - accepting an adjustment to the Julian calendar which stemed either from Alexandria or perhaps from the Council of Nicaea. The Easter festival would thus occur on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This was the System which August- ine must have learned from Ambrose. As the imperial government increasingly used Milan as a residente and seat of administrative government, the church there came to surpass other civitatcs in influence for northem Italy and Provence from the fourth to the eleventh century. The reckoning survived at some places in Gaul for several centuries, particularly at Auxerre, and it could have been learned by Pvtricic if he visited Gaul or Provence. Cumian, however, also quoted from thc acts of the Synod of krles (ascembled in A. D. 314 by Constantine to settle the disputed election of Caecilian as bishop of Carthage) concerning the need to celebrate Easter in common with the whole church: Item Arelatensi synodo sexcentorum episcoporum confirmante primo in loco de observatione Paschae, ur uno die et uno tempoie per totum orbem terrarum a nobis conservetur: ut universalic Ecclesia uno ore, juxta apostolum, honorificet dominum unum. 14 The canons of the Synod of Arles survive in at least two versions, and there are also short acd long versions of a letter from Bichop Xarinus of Arles to newly elected Bishop Silvester of Rome, riho had not been present.
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