6 - ‘Right faith and good actions’: lay piety and devotion

Summary

What churchmen by the twelfth century generally expected from the laity by way of regular religious practice can be summarised as: observance of Sunday rest from labour and attendance at Mass; proper and timely recourse to the sacraments of baptism, the eucharist and penance; the celebration of the liturgical seasons, especially the various periods of fasting and abstinence; almsgiving, and the regular payment of tithes on all income; compliance with the canon law of marriage and specified periods of sexual abstinence. Religious observances on the part of the laity should not, of course, necessarily be taken to imply religious understanding. In practice, the difficulties attendant on instructing the laity must have been immense. Only a minority, such as kings and high-status families, received personal guidance from clerical advisers. In the ninth-century Rule of Patrick bishops are presented as having a particular responsibility for the spiritual direction of rulers. A personal spiritual adviser was a natural adjunct of rank, as in the case of Diarmait Mac Murchada, king of Leinster (ob. 1171), who acknowledged Áed Ua Cáellaide, bishop of Louth, as his ‘spiritual father and confessor’. When Cormac Mac Carthaig was forced from the kingship of Munster in 1127 and retired to the monastery of Lismore, he placed himself under the spiritual tutelage of Malachy; and even after his restoration to royal power he continued to revere Malachy.