THE early
ecclesiastical history of Man is shrouded in as dense a mist of myth and tradition
as is its early secular history. In connexion with this worship, a class of persons
arose whom we know by the Celtic name of druadh,
who stood between the people and their deities, and who acquired great power over
the former by the influence they were supposed to exert over the latter by their
sacrifices and magic arts. It should be remembered, that " in no tale or legend
of the Irish druids " with whom the Manx druids were most likely to have been
connected " which has come down to our time, is there any mention of their ever
having offered human sacrifices " The non-Celtic natives had another religion,
namely druidism, which may be surmised to have had its origin among them.
In
the Isle of Man, as elsewhere, the old order was to give way to the new, but probably
so gradually, and certainly so obscurely, that we are entirely unable to state
more than that the Manx were probably converted to Christianity in the sixth or
seventh century, or possibly as early as the fifth century. Into the midst of
these people came the conquering Goidels,
who were, seemingly' originally polytheists of the Aryan type. These Goidels or
Goidelic Celts, devotees of a religion which combined Aryan polytheism with druidism
were clearly greatly influenced by the magic arts of the druids (dniadli), or
priests, of the conquered race, as they practised a religion which combined the
chief characteristics of druidism with those of their own. This view of the influence
of the druids is confirmed by the use made of their name in the Celtic literature
of later times. In Welsh poetry, it is applied to the wise men of the East, who
came to our infant Saviour with gifts; and, in Ireland, it is not only used in
the same manner, but is usually rendered into Latin by magus, a magician.
The
British Church was represented at the Synod
of Aries in A.D. 314; at the
close of the fourth century the natives of Britain 12 were probably all Christians,
and, at the beginning of the fifth century, they had advanced sufficiently to
produce a heretic, Pelagius. This
Pelagius had an intimate friend, Coelestinus, an Irishman, so that it is possible
that in this way, if not also through the constant attacks of the Irish upon Britain
during the fourth century, when they must have
had intercourse with Christian natives, Christianity was introduced into Ireland
before St. Patrick's time.
The druadh, after their adoption by the
Goidels, were, in fact, soothsayers, priests, and medicine-men, but their
principal character was, perhaps, that of magicians. It was formerly supposed
that they sacrificed to the Phoenician
Baal in the stone circles, but more recent research has shown that these mighty
monuments are the memorials of a prehistoric race, and that the Goidels
had no knowledge of this deity. It is in this aspect of magicians that they 'appear
in the early legends about the introduction of Christianity, one of which, for
instance, represents St. Patrick,
who is supposed to have driven them from Ireland. A Christianizing movement of
somewhat earlier date may have reached Man from another quarter. For at the very
end of the fourth century a British saint, St.
Ninian (ob.432), who had been trained at Rome, built a church, called Candida
Casa, on the western side of Wigton Bay, and dedicated it to St. Martin of
Tours It is said that through his teaching the southern
Picts were converted, but, as they soon afterwards seem to have apostatized,
his influence was not a permanent one.
Irish
missionaries who introduced it to Man, we cannot tell, but from the large
proportion of the names of Irish ecclesiastics surviving in the old
Manx keeills, or cells, which are of similar type to the Irish oratories of
the sixth and seventh centuries, and in the Manx
parish churches, which are usually on ancient sites, it may reasonably be
conjectured that Manxmen were, for the most part, Christianized by Irish missionaries;
and, indeed, it would have been strange if the proselytizing Irish monks, who,
beginning in the sixth century, wandered all over Europe, had avoided an island
so near to them.
Christianity, brought by English missionaries, gained a
foothold under Olaf I and was established by Olaf II (reigned 1015–28). Olaf II
was driven out of Norway by King Canute of England and Denmark, in league with
discontented Norwegian nobles; however, his son, Magnus I, was restored (1035)
to the Norwegian throne. Both Magnus and his successor, Harold III, played a vital
part in the complex events then taking place in England and Denmark. After Harold
died while invading England (1066), Norway entered a period of decline and civil
war, precipitated by conflicting claims to the throne.
The word Gaelic
by itself most often refers to Scottish Gaelic and it is the word that Scottish
Gaelic speakers themselves use when speaking English. Although Irish and Manx
are often referred to as Irish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic can be described as Goidelic
or Gaelic languages. Gaelic is specifically Northern Irish Gaelic - and this is
the origin of the English word Gaelic. a
Manx Languages (table)
Ireland is on its west shore of Man, Scotland,
England, and Wales on the east. The principal islands in the sea are the Isle
of Man, Anglesey, and Holyhead. The chief ports are Dublin, Liverpool, Manchester,
Fleetwood, and Dún Laoghaire. It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean (the
Celtic Sea) by St George's Channel between the Republic of Ireland and Wales to
the south and by the North Channel between North Ireland and Scotland to the north-east.
The Celtic Sea is that area of the Atlantic Ocean which is bounded by the
south coast of Ireland, the southwest coast of Wales and the north coast of Devon
and Cornwall in England west of the Bristol Channel, Peel, on the west coast of
the Island. Amongst its ruins is an ancient Celtic cathedral dating from the 13th
century. The cathedral is surrounded by the pink sandstone walls of Peel Castle,
which dates from the 14th century. St Patrick's Isle, on the edge of the bay and
tradition has it that the great Irish Saint stepped ashore here in the 5th century
to bring Christianity to the Manx. First
Peel Inventory