When Columba landed on lona he was attended by twelve followers
whom he had formed into a religious body of which he was the head.
To these, as occasion required, others were from time to time
added, so that the original number was always kept up. Their
institution was called a monastery and the superior an abbot, but
the system had little in common with the monastic institutions of
later times. The name by which those who submitted to the rule
were known was that of Culdees, probably from the Latin "cultores
Dei"--worshippers of God. They were a body of religious persons
associated together for the purpose of aiding each other in the
common work of preaching the gospel and teaching youth, as well as
maintaining in themselves the fervor of devotion by united
exercises of worship. On entering the order certain vows were
taken by the members, but they were not those which were usually
imposed by monastic orders, for of these, which are three,--
celibacy, poverty, and obedience.--the Culdees were bound to none
except the third. To poverty they did not bind themselves; on the
contrary they seem to have labored diligently to procure for
themselves and those dependent on them the comforts of life.
Marriage also was allowed them, and most of them seem to have
entered into that state.
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