HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN IRELAND

Impact of Christianity on The Brehon Laws

Patrick, by publicly flouting sacred taboos laid down by the druids, showed that they had no magical power. He showed the kings that they could liberate themselves from the control of the druids. The High King, Laoghaire, (pronounce "Layra"), accepted Christianity and this expedited its spread throughout the island. Laoghaire is, moreover, credited with causing the Brehon Laws to be amended to encompass Christian principles.

While the kings thus liberated themselves from the power of the druids, they, in time, found themselves circumscribed by the moral authority of the Christian clergy. The druids continued to exist for centuries, but they had lost their high political and economic status. The Christian cleric took over the high position previously held by the druid.

St. Patrick had little respect for the pagan traditions and would replace all the ancient learning, embracing history, the sciences and the arts as well as the law, with the Bible. The two traditions existed side by side for centuries, the Christians controlling the written body of learning and the pagan learning continuing to be passed down through the oral tradition.

The hierarchical structure of lay society was echoed in the celtic monasteries. Columba appointed his cousins and other persons of royal blood to the positions of abbots, while commoners held servile positions in the cloisters.

In Columba's time there was a dispute over the succession to the High Kingship between the Donegal and the Meath branch of the decendants of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The armies of the two rivals met in battle. Columba, beside the battle field, prayed for the victory of his, the Donegal, branch, and the battle went in their favour. He afterwards repented this interference in politics and, in penance, departed from Ireland on a self-imposed exile in Scotland, where he converted the Picts to Christianity and set up a number of monasteries.

In the meantime a dispute raged back in Ireland over whether the Brehon Laws should be replaced by Canon Law, the country now being more or less totally Christian. A great conference of the kings and brehons of the whole country was held at Drom Ceat (pronounce Drumm Kyat) (in 575 A.D.) to resolve this queation. Columba returned from Scotland to attend the conference, where he argued strongly for the continuance of the Brehon Laws. He pointed out the difference between morality, encapsulated in the Canon Law, and the law of the land, as enforced by the Brehons. The Church Laws, he argued, were ideals that Christians strive to fulfil in their lives, but the Brehon Laws were pragmatic solutions to the realities of living in an imperfect world. This view prevailed and the Brehon traditions were saved.

From the 7th to the 9th century the legal tracts were written down, often by the clerics. The written versions may be somewhat corrupted by the clerical impulse to modify the lay law in the direction of the Canon Law. These old tracts were copied in later centuries, with elaborations in the form of Glosses and Commentaries. The 7th to 9th century manuscripts have all been lost, but the bulk of the Brehon Laws are available in the later copies. In these the original 8th century texts are reproduced in large writing, with the later glosses following in smaller writing and the commentaries in separate texts.

Cain Adomnain is acclaimed as a charter establishing the rights of women, but it undoubtedly had its downside as well. Its manifest function was the punishment of crimes against women, but its negative latent functions would have included:

• A shift in emphasis from compensating victims to punishing culprits;
• A shift, accordingly, in focus from the victim to the perpetrator; the victim becomes, not a person whose compensation is the cause of litigation, but a witness to the crime;
• Getting a verdict of guilty, particularly in respect of a serious crime such as murder, for which the death penalty applies, is more difficult than getting a verdict for the payment of compensation to a victim, (as the O.J. Simpson trials again prove in our day);
• Under the old law, where the perpetrator was unable to pay compensation, the victim or the victim's kin could take the perpetrator into bondage, or sell him as a bond-servant. This was of no value if the perpetrator was executed, and was of little value if he had his hand or foot amputated in punishment.

Land was often granted to clergy, either for the Church in general or for the foundation of a monastery. Since church land was not redistributed on the death of its temporary holder, the church became a substantial land-owner and landlord, and came to be a conservative force in society and the protector of the privileges of the propertied classes.

There were two classes of clergy, the regular clergy who lived in society and held suitable status within their tuath or region, and the monks and nuns, who removed themselves from society and lived celibate lives in monasteries. The monasteries were centres of learning, created manuscripts on lay as well as religious themes, and were pioneers in the development of agriculture and industry. It was in the Irish monasteries that whiskey was invented.