The growth of Iona was as the growth of the grain of
mustard seed mentioned in the Gospel, even during the
life of its founder. Formed by his teaching and example,
there went out from it apostles to Iceland, to the Orkneys,
to Northumbria, to Man, and to South Britain. A hundred
monasteries in Ireland looked to that exiled saint as
their patriarch. His rule of monastic life, adopted either
from the far East, from the recluses of the Thebaid, or
from his great contemporary, Saint Benedict, was sought
for by Chiefs, Bards, and converted Druids. Clients,
seeking direction from his wisdom, or protection through
his power, were constantly arriving and departing from
his sacred isle. His days were divided between manual
labour and the study and transcribing of the Sacred
Scriptures. He and his disciples, says the Venerable
Bede, in whose age Iona still flourished, "neither thought
of nor loved anything in _this_ world." Some writers have
represented Columbkill's _Culdees_, (which in English
means simply "Servants of God,") as a married clergy; so
far is this from the truth, that we now know, no woman
was allowed to land on the island, nor even a cow to be
kept there, for, said the holy Bishop, "wherever there
is a cow there will be a woman, and wherever there is a
woman there will be mischief."

In the reign of King Hugh, three domestic questions arose
of great importance; one was the refusal of the Prince
of Ossory to pay tribute to the Monarch; the other, the
proposed extinction of the Bardic Order, and the third,