Note 354 — Chapter X · THE CHURCH.

The arguments of Laisren, Abbot of Lethglin, at the Synod held at that place, are said to have induced the Southern Churches to abandon the Cycle and Tonsure of their predecessors about 629–30. Usher Primord. p. 936. This Laisren has been erroneously confounded with Laistranus, one of the abbots addressed by Pope John about 640. Bed. Eccl. Hist., l. 2, c. 19. Compare Bed. Hist. Eccl., l. 3, c. 26, l. 5, c. 15, 23. Saint Fintan was the opponent of Laisren, and tradition has ascribed to him a singular method of upholding his opinions. He offered three alternatives to Laisren—1. To throw two copies of the old and the new systems into a fire, to test which would remain unburnt. 2. To shut up two monks in a burning house, and submit them to the same ordeal! 3. Or to raise a monk from the dead and abide by his decision. Laisren declined the trial through fear of Fintan’s superior sanctity; and, at any rate, the two monks must have felt relieved by his humility. Cummian, however, appears to have been totally ignorant that any such alternatives were offered to Laisren during the Synod of Lethglin; for he represents the arguments of the principal opponent of the new system (whom he hesitates not to stigmatise as a whited wall) to have been based upon an appeal to the traditions and practice of their forefathers. Usher Brit. Eccl. Antiq., c. 17, p. 485; and Sylloge, p. 33.