Note 431 — Chapter VI · THE SECULAR CLERGY AND THE CULDEES.

The latest and ablest supporter of the view that the Columban monks were the Culdees is Ebrard, in his Culdeische Kirche. He rightly gives, as the correct form of the name in Irish, Ceile De, and properly explains Ceile as meaning ‘Socius,’ but entirely fails in his attempt to connect the name with the Columban Church. He finds the word Ceile in the Irish name of St. Columba, Coluim cille, which he says should be Coluim ceile, or the Culdee, and that the name of Urbs Coludi, given by Bede to Coldingham, means the town of the Culdees. This is etymology of the same kind as that which makes Kirkcaldy, the old form of which is Kyrc-aldyn, to mean the church of the Culdees.