Liberty, Order and Law Under Native Irish Rule

Treatises based on social status original: "tracts e statu" are supposed to exist by special rules which members of each social order have implicitly promised to observe. Each territory has at least three customary codes: the Law of the Lords original: "corus flatha", the Law of the Kindred original: "corus fine", and the Law of the Common People original: "corus Feine", which deals with matters of interest to all the inhabitants of the territory.

II. ECCLESIASTICAL LAW original: "CORUS EAGLASTA": PATRICK’S RELIGIOUS POLICY . . . 98

¶ The establishment of the Church in Ireland by adapting tribal customs in each territory to the needs of the new society. It functioned as a voluntary kinship group known as “the tribe of the saint,” with the abbot as the chief and “the tribe to which the land belonged” as his parishioners. This section covers the reciprocal duties of the Church and the people: religious services provided by the Church for the people, and tithes, first-fruits, and first-born livestock original: "firstlings" given by the people to the Church. It also includes regulations regarding grants to a church: gifts given by each social rank according to its dignity, though no one should make grants that prevent his share of the land from eventually returning to the common possession of the tribe. Other topics include rules for compensation: (1) in cases of legal default between the Church and a layman, and (2) regarding the succession to an abbacy the office or period of rule of an abbot. Finally, it discusses the great monastic schools and their development of both secular and sacred learning, and the harmony between the Church and the people regarding the ideals of national unity.

Chapter VII

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE KINDRED IN THE GEILFINE SYSTEM The Geilfine was the smallest and most immediate circle of the four Irish kinship divisions . . . 125

¶ The Irish Geilfine organization, a fourfold kinship group consisting of four men in each division, with the chief making a fifth in the immediate Geilfine division, and his youngest son serving as his heir. This includes a description from the Book of Aicill an ancient Irish legal manuscript attributed to King Cormac mac Airt and the divisions of the tribe of a...