Map of Ireland, Britain and Europe, showing Irish monasteries in Europe.
When the Irish monks came into contact with European clergy, differences in their practices created difficulties. The Irish Church, which had been out of direct contact with Rome, had retained some ancient practices. Irish monks had a different tonsure (way of cutting their hair), a different way of calculating the date of Easter, and were not organised in dioceses under a bishop. These irregularities were not acceptable to the Roman authorities. The Synod of Whitby, a gathering of clergy from the Irish and Roman traditions, was called by King Oswiu of Northumbria in 664. It settled these differences, but the Irish clergy were slow to make the required changes.
Insular Manuscripts in Europe
A number of 8th-century gospel books in the Insular style survive. A manuscript from Durham Cathedral Library, the Lindisfarne and Lichfield Gospels, are all in England. Gospel books from Echternach in Luxembourg, Maihingen in Germany and the Abbey
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Figure 24.2 The Lindisfarne Gospels, cross-carpet page.
Library of St Gall in Switzerland are all written in the Irish style of script. They all contain portraits of the
NEW APPRECIATING ART IRELAND AND ITS PLACE IN THE WIDER WORLD
