t as ready to curse as to pray and certainly very much
more likely to smite the aggressor than to present to him the other
cheek. In the text we shall see St. Mochuda, whose Life is a specially
sane piece of work, cursing on the same occasion, first, King Blathmac
and the Prince of Cluain, then, the rich man Cronan who sympathised with
the eviction, next an individual named Dubhsulach who winked insolently
at him, and finally the people of St. Columba's holy city of Durrow who
had stirred up hostile feeling against him. Even gentle female saints
can hurl an imprecation too. St. Laisrech, for instance, condemned the
lands of those who refused her tribute, to--nettles, elder shrub, and
corncrakes! It is pretty plain that the compilers of the lives had some
prerogatives, claims or rights to uphold--hence this frequent insistence
on the evil of resisting the Saint and presumably his successors.

One characteristic of the Irish ascetics appears very clear through all
the exaggeration and all the biographical absurdity; it is their spirit
of intense mortification. To understand this we have only to study one
of the ancient Irish Monastic Rules or one of the Irish Penitentials as
edited by D'Achery ("Spicilegium") or Wasserschleben ("Irische
Kanonensamerlung"). Severest fasting, unquestioning obedience and
perpetual self renunciation were inculcated by the Rules and we have
ample evidence that they were observed with extraordinary fidelity. The
Rule of Maelruin absolutely forbade the use of meat or of beer. Such a
prohibition a thousand years ago was an immensely more grievous thing
than it would sound to-day. Wheaten bread might partially supply the
place of meat to-day, but meat was easier to procure than bread in the
eighth century. Again, a thousand years ago, tea or coffee there was
none and even milk was often difficult or impossible to procure in
winter. So severe in fact was the fast that religious sometimes died of
it. Bread and water being found insufficient to sustain life and health,
gruel was substituted in some monasteries and of this monastic gruel
there were three varieties:--(a) "gruel upon water" in which the liquid
was so thick that the meal reached the surface, (b) "gruel between two
waters" in which the meal, while it did not rise to the surface, did not
quite fall to the bottom, and (c) "gruel under water" which was so weak
and so badly boiled that he meal easily fell to the bottom. In the case
of