A ceremonial, not without dignity, regulated the gradations
of honour, in the General Assemblies of Erin. The time
of meeting was the great Pagan Feast of Samhain, the 1st
of November. A feast of three days opened and closed the
Assembly, and during its sittings, crimes of violence
committed on those in attendance were punished with
instant death. The monarch himself had no power to pardon
any violator of this established law. The _Chiefs_ of
territories sat, each in an appointed seat, under his
own shield; the seats being arranged by order of the
Ollamh, or Recorder, whose duty it was to preserve the
muster-roll, containing the names of all the living
nobles. The _Champions_, or leaders of military bands,
occupied a secondary position, each sitting' under his
own shield. Females and spectators of an inferior rank
were excluded; the Christian clergy naturally stepped
into the empty places of the Druids, and were placed
immediately next the monarch.

We shall now briefly notice the principal acts of the
first Christian kings, during the century immediately
succeeding St. Patrick's death. Of OLLIOL, who succeeded
Leary, we cannot say with certainty that he was a Christian.
His successor, LEWY, son of Leary, we are expressly told
was killed by lightning (A.D. 496), for "having violated
the law of Patrick"--that is, probably, for having
practised some of those Pagan rites forbidden to the
monarchs by the revised constitution. His successor,
MURKERTACH, son of Ere, was a professed Christian, though
a bad one, since he died by the vengeance of a concubine