Ebook: Irish Monasticism: Origins and Early Development

From author's Preface:
That the Irish Church for six centuries was markedly "monastic ” in character is a commonplace of ecclesiastical history. Now monasticism, as an organised institution, was not a phenomenon peculiar to Ireland, for it was found all over the Christian world. The date and place of its birth, the stages in its propagation, the different forms which it assumed in different countries, can be determined with considerable precision. In Ireland the line of monastic development was obviously very distinct from the line of development elsewhere. In what, then, we ask ourselves, did the points of difference consist ? What, in other words, was the relation of monasticism as it existed in our island, to monastic institutions as known in the leading Christian lands?..
Thanks to the scholarship of the last century and of our own time, to Lanigan, Todd, O’Donovan, Reeves, McCarthy, Gwynn, Plummer, Bury and other honoured names among the living and the dead, the task was not impossible of fulfilment. The work was planned in 1921-3, when I was studying under Prof. Monsignor Albert Ehrhard, Prof. Levison, and Prof. Thurneysen, at the University of Bonn, but it was not completed until two years ago. Its progress through the press has been retarded by various accidents. The literature which has since appeared has thrown new light on points of interest, but as these in every case were matters of detail only, they were not deemed important enough to justify the expense of revision and further delay in publication.
My regret is keen that Dr. James F. Kenney’s fine bibliographical work (The Sources for the Early History of Ireland. Vol. I. Ecclesiastical) did not issue from the press until my book was written. Readers who desire complete bibliographies, rather than the select bibliographies prefixed to many of my paragraphs, will find their needs catered for in Dr. Kenney’s monumental volume.
In dealing with so difficult a subject, with problems so many and so thorny, I cannot be sure that I have always found the right solution; but I shall be delighted to accept a better, whenever it can be found. The purpose of the book is not, indeed, so much to supply conclusions as to stimulate the interest of scholars in our early ecclesiastical history. An enormous amount of pioneer work awaits enterprising students in that field.
It is hoped to pursue the history of Irish Monasticism into the later centuries and to publish, in due course, some sections that, for reasons of space, have had to be omitted from the present volume.