regulations. The latter however seem to have depended largely upon the
abbot's spirit, will or discretion. The existing "Rules" abound in
allusions to forgotten practices and customs and, to add to their
obscurity, their language is very difficult--sometimes, like the
language of the Brehon Laws, unintelligible. The rule ascribed to
Mochuda is certainly a document of great antiquity and may well have
emanated from the seventh century and from the author whose name it
bears. The tradition of Lismore and indeed of the Irish Church is
constant in attributing it to him. Copies of the Rule are found in
numerous MSS. but many of them are worthless owing to the incompetence
of the scribes to whom the difficult Irish of the text was
unintelligible. The text in the Leabhar Breac has been made the basis
of his edition of the Rule by Mac Eaglaise, a writer in the 'Irish
Ecclesiastical Record' (1910). Mac Eaglaise's edition, though it is not
all that could be desired, is far the most satisfactory which has yet
appeared. Previous editions of the Rule or part of it comprise one by
Dr. Reeves in his tract on the Culdees, one by Kuno Meyer in the 'Gaelic
Journal' (Vol. V.) and another in 'Archiv fuer C.L.' (3 Bund. 1905), and
another again in 'Eriu' (Vol. 2, p. 172), besides a free translation of
the whole rule by O'Curry in the 'I. R. Record' for 1864. The text of
the 'Record' edition of 1910 is from Leabhar Breac collated with other
MSS. The order in the various copies is not the same and some copies
contain material which is wanting in others. The "Rule" commences with
the Ten Commandments, then it enumerates the obligations respectively of
bishops, abbots, priests, monks, and culdees [anchorites]. Finally there
is a section on the order of meals and on the refectory and another on
the obligations of a king. The following excerpt on the duties of an
abbot ('I. E. Record' translation) will illustrate the style and spirit
of the Rule: