Note 474 — Chapter VI · THE SECULAR CLERGY AND THE CULDEES.

Ceile, as a substantive, means literally, ‘socius, maritus,’ but it has a secondary meaning, ‘servus,’ and as an adverb it means ‘pariter.’ Dr. Reeves, in his work on the British Culdees, adopts the secondary meaning, and considers that it is simply the Irish equivalent of Servus Dei, which, he says, was the ordinary expression for a monk, and hence starts with the assumption that the Ceile De were simply monks. This is one of the very few instances in which the author has found himself unable to accept a dictum of Dr. Reeves. This rendering appears to him objectionable—first, because no example can be produced in which the term Servus Dei appears translated by Ceile De; secondly, that the term Ceile De is applied to a distinct class who were not very numerous in Ireland, while the term Servus Dei is a general expression applicable to religious of all classes, and included, as we have seen, the secular canons as well as the monks. Ebrard rejects the rendering by Servus Dei, and supposes that it is the Irish equivalent of Vir Dei; but this is still more objectionable. Vir Dei was a term applied to all saints of whatever class; and in the Litany of Angus, who himself bore the name of Ceile De, or the Culdee, it is translated Fer De, but in the glosses on the Felire of Angus the word Ceile is glossed Carait, or friend; and the author long ago came to the conclusion that, though not etymologically identic, it is the Irish equivalent of Deicola, God-worshipper, in its primary meaning, that is, in the sense of companionship or near connection with God. The late Dr. Joseph Robertson, when he was preparing the Introduction to the Statuta, came by an independent inquiry to the same result (see Introduction, vol. i. p. ccxii.); and the author cannot help thinking that, had it not been for the etymological considerations which weighed with Dr. Reeves, his historical inquiry would have brought him to the same conclusion.